So you bought a book (or five) from the Readings Festival Bookshop. How does your haul compare to the top 25 bestselling books of the Festival? Discover what you need to add to your reading list immediately thanks to our Official Bookseller, Readings. The top 25 bestselling books from MWF18 1. No Friend But the…
There’s nothing more satisfying than a bookshelf groaning under the weight of new reads – pages filled with places to discover and characters to meet. To get you in the mood for MWF18, we’re offering one lucky lit-lover the chance to win a Year of Reading, 52 books from this year’s Festival. While we can’t reveal…
What we’re reading this summer. Marieke Hardy, Artistic Director In the Garden of the Fugitives by Ceridwen Dovey, because I trust the woman who gave it to me. True Stories by Helen Garner – I mean, really. Helen. Helen Garner. Do you hear that sound? It is the sound of glitter cannons exploding in my…
Janet Mock transcends the memoir genre in her new book, Surpassing Certainty, by reminding us of the power of storytelling – and specifically, the power of telling one’s story. By Bhakthi Puvanenthiran Surpassing Certainty is a multicoloured light show of a book. Sold as an early adulthood memoir, but serving as a self-help guide, a trans story…
By Angel Gouvas I began reading young adult books when I started high school and have been in love ever since. There’s something about books written for teens that capture something so incredible, it’s hard to ever stop reading. These books explore family, friends, romance, heartbreak, coming of age – life, in a nutshell. And while I…
Looking for some summer reading ideas? Our programming team give us their picks for the long, lazy days ahead. Lisa Dempster, Festival Director/CEO This summer I’m looking forward to catching up on some great Australian literature that I didn’t have a chance to read during the year, including Katherine Johnson’s The Better Son, Isabelle Li’s…
Earlier this year, we gave you our favourite books of 2016 so far. With so many incredible books released this year, we thought it was time for part two. What were your favourites? Lisa Dempster, Festival Director/CEO Perhaps obviously, as she was MWF’s keynote speaker this year, one of my favourite books of the year…
Australia’s best writers – shortlistees and winners of the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards – share their favourite books of the year. Karen Lamb, joint winner in Non-Fiction for Thea Astley: Inventing her Own Weather My book choice for 2016 is the just released book Little Fish Are Sweet by Matthew Condon. It takes me back to…
Gemina: The Illuminae Files_02 by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff Gemina is equal parts as spectacularly written as its predecessor. I feel like there are just no words to describe how unbelievably phenomenal this book was. The Illuminae Files are just so masterfully crafted, and are so unique, and I cannot fully express how beautiful…
I am writer, and pretty much have been since I could hold a crayon. But before that I was (and always will be) a reader. I think it’s such a shame that as adults, we forget about the books we loved as kids. And I know there’s an argument for the fact that there are…
Over the 10 days of MWF 2016, we ran an Instagram competition with our friends at Text Publishing. The prize? All 100 Text Classics – not too shabby, eh? We asked our followers to post a photo of or with their favourite Australian book, and received dozens of entries, with eager bookworms shouting out to varied titles including Looking…
It’s difficult enough to keep up with all that’s happening in contemporary publishing, let alone figuring out what’s important and worthwhile in the Australian and New Zealand canon. That’s where Text Classics come in. These distinctive volumes focus on pulling the very best out of the back catalogue of great writing from Australia and New…