Thursday night book club

Pull up a beanbag every Thursday evening this summer and autumn, get comfy in Melbourne's 'home of books', and listen to some of the best writers in the city talk about their work.

Each Thursday night book club will focus on one of 10 recently released books, all sharing one theme – they're all set in Melbourne. Each meeting will include a Q&A chaired by Readings bookshop, followed by a lively discussion with your fellow book club members.

Notes on the book will be posted online before each session and we'll keep the discussion going in the State Library's Tablo writing community.

Readings discount

You can receive 10% off the price of any of the 10 books featured in our book club when purchasing them from Readings at State Library Victoria. To receive the discount online, enter the promo code BOOKCLUB in the promo code box during online checkout. To receive the discount at our State Library bookshop, simply mention the Thursday night book club at the counter.

Many of the book club titles are also available in ebook format and can be used with accessibility software. Please speak to Library staff or enquire at your local library service.

Thursday night book club, 6–8pm
2 February to 6 April 2017
Palmer Hall
No bookings required

Thursday 2 February

Alec Patric: Black Rock White City
AS (Alec) Patric is a creative writing teacher and bookseller living in Bayside, Melbourne, with his wife and two daughters. His debut novel, Black Rock White City, won the 2016 Miles Franklin Award. He is a winner of the Ned Kelly Award and the Booranga Prize, and the author of Las Vegas for vegans, which was shortlisted in the Queensland Literary Awards. He is also the author of Bruno Kramzer and The rattler & other stories.

Thursday 9 February

Jane Rawson: A wrong turn at the office of unmade lists
Jane Rawson has written A wrong turn at the office of unmade lists (a novel), The Handbook: Surviving and living with climate change (a nonfiction guide co-authored with James Whitmore), Formaldehyde (a novella) and From the wreck, a novel due out in March with Transit Lounge. For money, she works for the government. You can find her in Melbourne's west.

Thursday 16 February

Miles Allinson: Fever of animals
Miles Allinson was born in Melbourne and is a writer and an artist. His first novel, Fever of animals, was published by Scribe and won the 2015 People's Choice Award at both the Victorian Premier's Prize and Western Australian Premier's Book Awards. He is currently a State Library Victoria Creative Fellow.

Thursday 23 February

Cath Crowley: Words in deep blue
Cath Crowley is an award-winning author of Young Adult fiction. Her novels include The Gracie Faltrain trilogy, Chasing Charlie Duskin, Graffiti moon and Words in deep blue. In 2011 Graffiti moon won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, the Ethel Turner Award for Young People's Literature, and was named an honour book in the Children's Book Council's Book of the Year.

Thursday 2 March

Chris Johnston & Rosie Jones: The family
Chris Johnston is a senior writer for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, based in Melbourne. He has been covering developments related to the Family for several years. Rosie Jones is an award-winning writer, director and editor. Her most recent feature documentary, The family, premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July 2016.

Thursday 9 March

Toni Jordan: Our tiny, useless hearts
(also available as an audio book from Readings)
Toni Jordan is the author of four novels. The international bestseller Addition was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Fall girl was published internationally and has been optioned for film, and Nine days was awarded Best Fiction at the 2012 Indie Awards, shortlisted for the ABIA Best General Fiction award and named in Kirkus Reviews' top 10 historical novels of 2013. Her latest novel is Our tiny, useless hearts.

Thursday 16 March

Zane Lovitt: Black teeth
Zane Lovitt was a documentary filmmaker before turning his hand to crime fiction. His debut novel, The midnight promise, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and led to Zane being named one of the Best Young Novelists of 2013 by the Sydney Morning Herald. His most recent book is Black teeth.

Thursday 23 March

Chris Womersley: Cairo
Chris Womersley is the author of the novels Cairo, Bereft and The low road, as well as numerous short stories and occasional reviews and essays. Cairo was long-listed for the Dublin/IMPAC Award. Bereft won the Indie Award for Best Fiction, the ABIA Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and The Gold Dagger Award for International Crime Fiction. The low road won the Ned Kelly Award. His fourth novel, City of crows, will be published in September 2017. Chris lives in Melbourne.

Thursday 30 March

Jock Serong: The rules of backyard cricket
Formerly a lawyer, Jock Serong is now a full-time writer. His first novel, Quota, won the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel. His most recent novel is The rules of backyard cricket. Jock is married with four children and lives in Port Fairy, Victoria.

Thursday 6 April

Micheline Lee: The healing party
Micheline Lee was born in Malaysia and migrated to Melbourne when she was eight. After completing law at Monash University, she lived in Darwin for 15 years. She has worked as a criminal prosecutor and as a painter, holding exhibitions in Australia and overseas. Micheline now lives in Melbourne with her partner and son. Shortlisted for the 2017 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, The healing party is her first novel.