This has been a very big year for both of our Hill of Content stores. In Melbourne, we moved our bookshop from our beloved old building to a beautiful new store just up the road. We had a‘ human book chain’ up Bourke Street, with book lovers bursting with warmth and camaraderie. There were lots of laughs and bookish jokes.
Our Balmain store was privileged to be the bookseller at the Historical Novel of the Year conference in Parramatta. As always, in attendance were lots of fantastic authors, guest speakers, and it was supported by an enthusiastic group of readers.
We are all excited by the books that have been flooding in for the Christmas market. There are many new novels from our favourite authors as well as some extraordinary new talent, spine chilling crime fiction, biography, gardening and cookbooks for everyone’ s taste. Our children’ s sections are overflowing with adventure stories, and stories about witches, fairies, dogs and monsters.
This year we have included our staff’ s favourite reads for the year. The book that moved me most was the biography of Arundhati Roy, Mother Mary Comes to Me. This is Arundhati’ s first biography and takes us from her childhood in Kerala to her present life in Delhi. She deals in depth with her relationship with her extraordinary mother, which was often volatile, and I marvelled at how Arundhati remembered her life’ s experience with such grace and admiration for the woman whom she describes as‘ Her shelter and her storm’.
The other book I just couldn’ t put down was Trent Dalton’ s Gravity Let Me Go. It tells the story of newspaper reporter Noah Cork, whose life is changed dramatically when a killer places a mystery into his letterbox. Trent’ s book is a rollicking ride through a murder mystery, an exploration of marriage and family dynamics, and it raises questions about what is true, what is questionable and what is important in life. As with Trent Dalton’ s other books, the somewhat unbelievable elements to the tale made it even more exceptional.
Wishing you all the best for the festive season and thank you for your loyal support again this year.
Diana Johnston
shop online at hillofcontentbookshop. com or hillofcontentbalmain. com. au 2 | Summer Reading Guide 2025