Book Club Titles - City of Busselton Libraries

Book Club Titles
NEW!! March 2016
Maralinga
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
By Judy Nunn
During the darkest days of the Cold War, in the remote wilderness of a South Australian
desert, the future of an infant nation is being decided without its people's knowledge. A
British airbase in the middle of nowhere; an atomic weapons testing ground; an army of
raw youth led by powerful, ambitious men - a cocktail for disaster. Such is Maralinga in the
spring of 1956. Maralinga is a story of British Lieutenant Daniel Gardiner, who accepts a
twelve-month posting to the wilds of South Australia on a promise of rapid promotion;
Harold Dartleigh, Deputy Director of MI-6 and his undercover operative Gideon Melbray;
Australian Army Colonel Nick Stratton and the enigmatic Petraeus Mitchell, bushman and
anthropologist. They all find themselves in a violent and unforgiving landscape, infected with
the unique madness and excitement that only nuclear testing creates.
11 copies available
My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises
RELATIONSHIPS
FICTION.
by Fredrik Backman
Granny has been telling fairy tales for as long as Elsa can remember. In the beginning they
were only to make Elsa go to sleep, and to get her to practise granny's secret language, and
a little because granny is just about as nutty as a granny should be. But lately the stories
have another dimension as well. Something Elsa can't quite put her finger on...' Elsa is seven
years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy. Standing-onthe-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also
Elsa's best, and only, friend. At night Elsa runs to her grandmother's stories, to the Land of
Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas. There, everybody is different and nobody
needs to be normal. So when Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters
apologizing to people she has hurt, it marks the beginning of Elsa's greatest adventure.
11 copies available
The Household Guide to Dying
DOMESTIC FICTION.
By Debra Adelaide
When Delia Bennet - author and domestic advice columnist - is diagnosed with cancer, she
knows it's time to get her house in order and secure the future for her husband, their two
daughters and even her beloved chickens. But as she writes lists and makes plans, questions
both large and small creep in. Should she divulge her best culinary secrets in her column?
Read her favourite novels one last time? Plan her daughters' far-off weddings? Complicating
her dilemma is the matter of the past, and a remote country town where she fled as a
pregnant teenager, and left broken-hearted eight years later. As she researches and writes
her final Household Guide, she confronts the pieces of herself she left behind and begins to
understand that what really matters is not the past, but the present. And that the art of
dying is all about truly living.
11 copies available
Page 2
The Invention of Wings
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Sue Monk Kidd
The story follows Hetty "Handful" Grimke, a Charleston slave, and Sarah, the daughter of
the wealthy Grimke family. The novel begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is given
ownership over Handful, who is to be her handmaid. "The Invention of Wings" follows the
next thirty-five years of their lives. Inspired in part by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke
(a feminist, suffragist and, importantly, an abolitionist), Kidd allows herself to go beyond the
record to flesh out the inner lives of all the characters, both real and imagined.
11 copies available
The Women in Black
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
By Madeleine St John
Sydney in the late 1950s…On the second floor of the famous F. G. Goode department
store, in Ladies' Cocktail Frocks, the women in black are girding themselves for the
Christmas rush. Lisa is the new Sales Assistant (Temporary). Across the floor and beyond
the arch, she is about to meet the glamorous Continental refugee, Magda, guardian of the
rose-pink cave of Model Gowns. With the lightest touch and the most tender of comic
instincts, Madeleine St John conjures a vanished summer of innocence. The Women In
Black is a classic.
11 copies available
A God In Ruins
HISTORICAL FICTION.
by Kate Atkinson
The dramatic story of the 20th century through Ursula's beloved younger brother Teddy-would-be poet, heroic pilot, husband, father, and grandfather--as he navigates the perils and
progress of a rapidly changing world. After all that Teddy endures in battle, his greatest
challenge is living in a future he never expected to have.
10 copies available
Page 3
Addition
MODERN FICTION.
By Toni Jordan
Grace Lisa Vandenburg counts. The letters in her name (19). The steps she takes every
morning to the local café (920); the number of poppy seeds on her slice of orange cake,
which dictates the number of bites she’ll take to finish it. Grace counts everything, because
numbers hold the world together. And she needs to keep an eye on how they’re doing. A
humorous and moving love story about a young woman struggling to balance romance,
family and a compulsive counting disorder.
10 copies available
All the Light We Cannot See
HISTORICAL FICTION.
by Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of
their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home.
But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret. Werner is a
German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father's life, until he
discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy,
but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering. At the same time, far away in a walled city
by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home.
But all around him, impending danger closes in.
10 copies available
And the Mountains Echoed
DOMESTIC FICTION.
by Khaled Hosseini
So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one...Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister
Pari live with their father and step-mother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father,
Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and
brutal winters. To Adbullah, Pari, as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she
was named, is everything. More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for
her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection.
10 copies available
Page 4
Big Little Lies
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
by Liane Moriarty
Jane hasn't lived anywhere longer than six months since her son was born five years ago.
She keeps moving in an attempt to escape her past. Now the idyllic seaside town of
Pirriwee has pulled her to its shores and Jane finally feels like she belongs. She has friends in
the feisty Madeline and the incredibly beautiful Celeste - two women with seemingly
perfect lives...and their own secrets behind closed doors. But then a small incident involving
the children of all three women occurs in the playground causing a rift between them and
the other parents of the school. Minor at first but escalating fast, until whispers and
rumours become vicious and spiteful. It was always going to end in tears, but no one
thought it would end in murder...
10 copies available
Burial Rites
MURDER FICTION
by Hannah Kent
In northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the
brutal murder of two men. Agnes is sent to wait out the time leading to her execution on
the farm of District Officer Jon Jonsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have
a convicted murderess in their midst, the family avoid speaking with Agnes. Only Toti, the
young assistant reverend appointed as Anges's spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to
understand her, as he attempts to salvage her soul. As the summer months fall away to
winter and the hardships of rural life force the household to work side by side, Ange's ill
fated tale of longing and betrayal begins to emerge. And as the days to her execution draw
closer, the question burns: did she or didn't she? Based on a true story, Burial Rites is a
deeply moving novel about personal freedom and the ways in which we will risk everything
for love.
10 copies available
Coming Rain
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
by Stephen Daisley
They returned to the main part of the shed and it was Lew's turn to sharpen his cutters.
The woolshed now bright and well lit. Painter walked to his stand and connected the
handpiece to the down-rod. He drizzled oil over the comb and the cutter, adjusted the
tension and pulled the rope to engage the running gear.
10 copies available
Page 5
Floodtide
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
By Judy Nunn
Floodtide is a brilliant observation of the turbulent times in the mighty ‘Iron Ore State’ Western Australia. The novel traces the fortunes of four men and four families over four
memorable decades: the prosperous post-war 1950s when childhood is idyllic and carefree
in the small, peaceful city of Perth… The turbulent 60s when youth is caught up in the
conflict of the Vietnam War and free love reigns...The avaricious 70s when Western
Australia’s mine boom sees the rise of a new young breed of aggressive entrepreneurs…
The corrupt 80s and the birth of ‘WA Inc’, when the alliance of greedy politicians and
powerful businessmen brings the state to its knees, even threatening the downfall of the
federal government.
10 copies available
Jasper Jones
THRILLER FICTION.
By Craig Silvey
Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and
bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleepout. His
visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious,
mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So
when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid
but desperate to impress. Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the
bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. In the
simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so
hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.
10 copies available
Of A Boy
THRILLER FICTION.
By Sonya Hartnett
The year is 1977, and Adrian is nine. He lives with his gran and his uncle Rory; his best
friend is Clinton Tull. He loves to draw and he wants a dog; he's afraid of quicksand and self
-combustion. Adrian watches his suburban world, but there is much he cannot understand.
He does not, for instance, know why three neighbourhood children might set out to buy
ice-cream and never come back home...
10 copies available
Page 6
Olive Kitteridge
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
By Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge: indomitable, compassionate and often unpredictable. A retired
schoolteacher in a small coastal town in Maine, struggling to make sense of the changes in
her life as she grows older. She is a woman who sees into the hearts of others, discerning
their triumphs and tragedies. We meet her stoic husband, bound to her in a marriage both
broken and strong, and a young man who aches for the mother he lost - and whom Olive
comforts by her mere presence, while her own son feels tyrannised by her overbearing
sensitivities...A penetrating, vibrant exploration of the human soul in need, Olive Kitteridge
will make you laugh, nod in recognition, wince in pain and shed a tear.
10 copies available
Past the Shallows
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
By Favel Parrett
Harry and Miles live with their father, an abalone fisherman, on the south-east coast of
Tasmania. With their mum dead, they are left to look after themselves. When Miles isn't
helping out on the boat they explore the coast and Miles and his older brother, Joe, love to
surf. Harry is afraid of the water. Everyday their dad battles the unpredictable ocean to
make a living. He is a hard man, a bitter drinker who harbours a devastating secret that is
destroying him. Unlike Joe, Harry and Miles are too young to leave home and so are forced
to live under the dark cloud of their father's mood, trying to stay as invisible as possible
whenever he is home. Harry, the youngest, is the most vulnerable and it seems he bears
the brunt of his father's anger.
10 copies available
Personal
THRILLER FICTION.
by Lee Child
You can leave the army, but the army doesn't leave you. Not always. Not completely, notes
Jack Reacher and sure enough, the retired military cop is soon pulled back into service.
This time, for the State Department and the CIA when someone shots at the president of
France, from sniper range, using an American bullet.
10 copies available
Page 7
Rainbow Six
THRILLER FICTION.
by Tom Clancy
Newly named head of an elite multinational task force, John Clark faces the world's
greatest fear: international terrorism. And following each terrifying new outbreak - the
ghosts from his own past. The challenge of a new mission is just what Clark needs, but the
opportunities come faster than he expected. Hostage-taking at a Swiss bank. The
kidnapping of an international trader. Carnage at a theme park in Spain. Each incident
seems separate, yet the timing disturbs Clark. Is there a connection? Is he being tested?
Or is there a bigger threat out there, from terrorists so extreme that no government is
ready to admit their existence?
10 copies available
Secret Keeping for Beginners
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Maggie Alderson
The lives of three very different sisters collide in this witty new novel from bestseller
Maggie Alderson. Recently divorced Rachel is juggling her new dream job in interior design
PR with the demands of two young daughters. She's full of creative ideas but - even with a
colourful childminder or two - some days she can't make it into the office on time and in
matching shoes. Tessa, a talented muralist, is feeling flat. Her kids are growing up and she's
feeling upstaged by her husband's new-found celebrity as the host of a reality TV fireplace
restoration show. But everything turns on its head when she gets a surprise from her past.
Youngest sister Natasha leads a glamorous jetsetting life - she's one of Vogue's favourite
make-up artists who regularly creates the looks for the biggest shows in Paris and Milan.
Single and childless, she's been focused on her career - but when the lie she's concealed for
years threatens to come to light, the truth will make her question everything. Meanwhile
their mother, Joy, a hippy vegetarian caterer, is carefully ignoring the letters that keep
arriving at her door. And everything lurking beneath the surface of this seemingly happy
family is about to come out.
10 copies available
Spirits of the Ghan
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
by Judy Nunn
It is 2001 and as the world charges into the new Millennium, a century-old dream is about
to be realised in the Red Centre of Australia: the completion of the mighty Ghan railway, a
long-lived vision to create the 'backbone of the continent', a line that will finally link
Adelaide with the Top End. But construction of the final leg between Alice Springs and
Darwin will not be without its complications, for much of the desert it will cross is
Aboriginal land. Hired as a negotiator, Jessica Manning must walk a delicate line to reassure
the elders their sacred sites will be protected. Will her innate understanding of the spiritual
landscape, rooted in her own Arunta heritage, win their trust? It's not easy to keep the
peace when Matthew Witherton and his survey team are quite literally blasting a rail
corridor through the timeless land of the Never-Never. When the paths of Jessica and
Matthew finally cross, their respective cultures collide to reveal a mystery that demands
attention. As they struggle against time to solve the puzzle, an ancient wrong is awakened
and calls hauntingly across the vastness of the outback...
10 copies available
Page 8
The Chocolate Promise
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
by Josephine Moon
Christmas Livingstone has ten rules for happiness, the most important of which is
'absolutely no romantic relationships'...In The Chocolate Apothecary, her enchanting artisan
store in Tasmania, she tempers chocolate and creates handmade delicacies. Surrounded by
gifts for the senses, in this shop chocolate isn't just good for you, it's medicine...And then
one day a stranger arrives at her front door - a dishevelled botanist seeking her help. She
really doesn't need Lincoln van Luc to walk into her life, even if he does have the nicest
blue eyes, the loveliest meddling grandmother and a gorgeous newly rescued dog. She
really doesn't need any of it. Or does she?..Set across Tasmania, Paris and Provence, this is
a glorious novel of a creative woman about to find out how far in life a list of rules will take
her, with an enticing tangle of freshly picked herbs, pots of flowers and lashings of
chocolate scenting the air...
10 copies available
The House on Carnaval Street
BIOGRAPHY.
by Deborah Rodriguez
When her family faces kidnap threats after the publication of her first book, Deborah
Rodriguez is forced to flee Kabul, leaving behind her friends, her possessions, the beauty
school she helped found and her two beloved businesses: a hair salon and a coffee shop.
But life proves not easier "back home". After a year living on top of a mountain in the Napa
Valley and teetering on the edge of sanity, Deborah makes a decision. One way or another
she's going to ge the old Deb back. So, at the age of forty-nine, she packs her life and her
cat, Polly, into her Mini Cooper and heads south to a pretty seaside town in Mexico. Home
is now an unassuming little house on Carnaval Street. There she struggles to learn Spanish,
works out with strippers and spends her Sunday nights watching clowns. And maybe - just
maybe - the magic of Mexico will finally give her what she's always dreamed of: a life on her
own terms...
10 copies available
The Light Between Oceans
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by M.L Stedman
They break the rules and follow their hearts. What happens next will break yours.1926.
Tom Sherbourne is a young lighthouse keeper on a remote island off Western Australia.
The only inhabitants of Janus Rock, he and his wife Isabel live a quiet life, cocooned from
the rest of the world.Then one April morning a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man
and a crying infant - and the path of the couple's lives hits an unthinkable crossroads.Only
years later do they discover the devastating consequences of the decision they made that
day - as the baby's real story unfolds ...
10 copies available
Page 9
The Little Paris Bookshop
by Nina George
On a beautifully restored barge on the Seine, Jean Perdu runs a bookshop; or rather a
'literary apothecary', for this bookseller possesses a rare gift for sensing which books will
soothe the troubled souls of his customers. The only person he is unable to cure, it seems,
is himself. He has nursed a broken heart ever since the night, twenty-one years ago, when
the love of his life fled Paris, leaving behind a handwritten letter that he has never dared
read. His memories and his love have been gathering dust - until now. The arrival of an
enigmatic new neighbour in his eccentric apartment building on Rue Montagnard inspires
Jean to unlock his heart, unmoor the floating bookshop and set off for Provence, in
search of the past and his beloved.
10 copies available
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
by Richard Flanagan
What would you do if you saw the love of your life, whom you thought dead for a quarter
of a century, walking towards you? Richard Flanagan’s story, of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian
doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle’s wife, journeys from the caves of Tasmanian
trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel; from a Thai
jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival; from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of
lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Taking its title from 17th-century haiku poet Basho’s
travel journal, The Narrow Road To The Deep North is about the impossibility of love. At
its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943. As the day builds to its
horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of his fellow
POWs, a man is killed for no reason, and a love story unfolds.
10 copies available
The Opal Desert
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Di Morrissey
Kerrie, in her 40s, has just lost her famous sculptor husband who had been the centre of
her existence and for whom she made many sacrifices and she now finds her life has lost
direction. Shirley, approaching 80, was betrayed by her lover many years before and has
retreated from the world, becoming a recluse living in an underground dugout. Anna, 19,
has a promising athletic career but is torn between the commitment to her sport which
could carry her to the Olympics, or enjoying life like other young people. The friendship
that develops between these three women, who meet in the strangely beautiful but
desolate landscape of the opal fields, helps them resolve and come to terms with the next
stage of their lives.
10 copies available
Page 10
The Reinvention of Ivy Brown
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
By Roberta Taylor
It is the 15th of February 1963, and Ivy Brown, typist at the Wiseman Pulverising Factory, is
about to turn thirty. As Ivy sits, staring at the back of the typist in front of her, she tries
desperately to avoid thinking about her impending birthday, her freckled hands and her
diminishing horizons. Two things lift Ivy Brown from her gloom: her brand new Beaver
Lamb coat and the thought of Arthur. Arthur is the man on whom Ivy has pinned all her
hopes. 'We are our own secret' Arthur says, and Ivy loves to repeat it, even as she
recollects the parts of her life she has kept from him. But when Ivy spots Arthur at the bus
stop, his arm around a young girl, she realises that she is not the only person keeping
secrets. Her determination to uncover the truth spells disaster for all those in her way. The
reinvention of Ivy Brown comes at a heavy price.
10 copies available
The Rosie Project
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Graeme Simsion
Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. Then a chance
encounter gives him an idea. He will design a questionnaire-a sixteen-page, scientifically
researched document-to find the perfect partner. She will most definitely not be a barmaid,
a smoker, a drinker or a late-arriver. Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is strangely
beguiling, fiery and intelligent. And she is also on a quest of her own. She's looking for her
biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might just be able to help her witheven if he does wear quick-dry clothes and eat lobster every single Tuesday night.
10 copies available
The Silkworm
MYSTERY FICTION.
by Robert Galbraith
When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran
Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days-as he has done before--and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home. But as Strike
investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife
realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of
almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives--meaning
that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced. When Quine is found brutally
murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the
motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before.
10 copies available
Page 11
The Things We Keep
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Sally Hepworth
Rosalind House might not be the first place you'd expect to find new love and renewal, but
within the walls of this assisted living facility two women have their lives changed forever.
Anna Forster, in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease at only thirty-eight years of age,
knows that her twin, Jack, has chosen Rosalind House because another young resident,
Luke, lives there. As if, Anna muses, a little companionship will soften the unfairness of her
fate. Eve Bennett also comes to Rosalind House reluctantly. Once a pampered, wealthy
wife, she is now cooking and cleaning to make ends meet. Both women are facing futures
they didn't expect. With other unreliable memories to guide them, they have no choice
but to lean on and trust something more powerful. Something closer to the heart.
10 copies available
The True Story of Butterfish
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
By Nick Earls
"I'm not about to attack," she said. She smirked with one side of her mouth and looked up
at me through the black spray of her fringe. Her eyes were dark and already she was
playing some kind of game with me, or that's how it seemed. Her voice was a little deeper
and huskier than I might have expected, so her last line had come out with a hint of
something that might have been menace or even seductiveness or just a pitch at adult
banter. Whatever it was, it stuck with me and it punctuated the moment and it didn't feel
quite right for a conversation with a schoolgirl on my doorstep." With his chart-topping
band, Butterfish, Curtis Holland lived the clichéd rock dream. Residing in hotels and
recording studios, travelling in custom-built buses, he got married after a sound check in a
wedding chapel in Nevada and barely noticed when his wife left him in Louisville. But no
dream lasts forever.
10 copies available
The Truth According to Us
HISTORICAL FICTION.
by Annie Barrows
From the co-author of "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society "comes a wise,
witty, and exuberant novel, perfect for fans of Lee Smith, that illuminates the power of
loyalty and forgiveness, memory and truth, and the courage it takes to do what's right.
Annie Barrows once again evokes the charm and eccentricity of a small town filled with
extraordinary characters. Her new novel, "The Truth According to Us, " brings to life an
inquisitive young girl, her beloved aunt, and the alluring visitor who changes the course of
their destiny forever. In the summer of 1938, Layla Beck's father, a United States senator,
cuts off her allowance and demands that she find employment on the Federal Writers'
Project, a New Deal jobs program. Within days, Layla finds herself far from her accustomed
social whirl, assigned to cover the history of the remote mill town of Macedonia, West
Virginia, and destined, in her own opinion, to go completely mad with boredom.
10 copies available
Page 12
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Lisa See
Lily is the daughter of a humble farmer, and to her family she is just another expensive
mouth to feed. Then the local matchmaker delivers startling news: if Lily's feet are bound
properly, they will be flawless. In nineteenth century Chine, where a woman's eligibility is
judged by the shape and size of her feet, this is extraordinary good luck. Lily now has the
power to make a good marriage and change the fortunes of her family. But a bitter reversal
of fortune is about to change everything.
9 copies available
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and
Disappeared RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Jonas Jonasson
Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, Allan Karlsson is waiting for a party he
doesn't want to begin. His one-hundredth birthday party to be precise. The Mayor will be
there. The press will be there. But, as it turns out, Allan will not. Escaping (in his slippers)
through his bedroom window, into the flowerbed, Allan makes his getaway. And so begins
his picaresque and unlikely journey involving a suitcase full of cash, a few thugs, a very
friendly hot-dog stand operator, a few deaths, an elephant and incompetent police. As his
escapades unfold, Allan's earlier life is revealed. A life in which--remarkably--he played a key
role behind the scenes in some of the momentous events of the twentieth century. The
One-Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is a
charming, warm and funny novel, beautifully woven with history and politics.
9 copies available
The Dead Path
HORROR FICTION.
By Stephen M Irwin
After his wife's sudden death, Nicholas leaves the life he had in London and returns home
to Australia. He knows something is very wrong and feels he is teetering on the brink of
madness. But the truth is much, much more sinister and dates back to his childhood: when
Nicholas was ten years old he found a strange talisman near the woods close to his home.
He didn't t touch it but felt its menacing power and ran. Later, he told his best friend,
Tristram, about it. They returned to the woods together to seek it out and Tristram picked
it up. That same day Tristram was murdered. There is something lurking in the woods that
knows Nicholas is back. It has been waiting. Because the wrong boy died.
9 copies available
Page 13
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Mitch Albom
On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to
save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his - and
then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is no a lush Garden
of Eden but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in
it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed
your path forever.
9 copies available
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
WAR FICTION.
by Mary Ann Shaffer
A moving tale of post-war friendship, love and books, this is a captivating and completely
irresistible novel of enormous depth and heart. It's 1946, and as Juliet Ashton sits at her
desk in her Chelsea flat, she is stumped. A writer of witty newspaper columns during the
war, she can't think of what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from one
Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance he's acquired a book Juliet once owned - and,
emboldened by their mutual love of books, they begin a correspondence. Dawsey is a
member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and it's not long before the
rest of the members write to Juliet. As letters fly back and forth, Juliet comes to know the
extraordinary personalities of the Society and their lives under the German occupation of
the island. Entranced by their stories, Juliet decides to visit the island to meet them
properly - and unwittingly turns her life upside down.
9 copies available
The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Rachel Joyce
Harold Fry is convinced that he must deliver a letter to an old love in order to save her,
meeting various characters along the way and reminiscing about the events of his past and
people he has known, as he tries to find peace and acceptance.
9 copies available
Page 14
The Well
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
By Elizabeth Jolley
Miss Hester Harper, middle-aged and eccentric, brings Katherine into her emotionally
impoverished life. Together they sew, cook gourmet dishes for two, run the farm, make
music and throw dirty dishes down the well. One night, driving along the deserted track
that leads to the farm, they run into a mysterious creature. They heave the body from the
roo bar and dump it into the farm’s deep well. But the voice of the intruder will not be
stilled...This important piece of Australian fiction is republished for the first time as a
Penguin Modern Classic. Elizabeth Jolley's award-winning novel is presented in a fresh, new
format that is a must-have for lovers of Australian literature.
9 copies available
Cold Justice
THRILLER FICTION.
By Katherine Howell
A teenage girl stumbles across the body of her classmate, Tim Pieters, hidden amongst the
bushes. His family is devastated, the killer is never found. Eighteen years later, political
pressure sees the murder investigation reopened. Detective Ella Marconi tracks down
Georgie Riley, the student who found the body, and who is now a paramedic. Georgie
seems to be telling the truth, so then why does Ella receive an anonymous phone call
insisting that Georgie knows more? And is it coincidence that her ambulance partner,
Freya, went to the same high school? The more Ella digs into the past, the more buried
secrets and lies are brought to light. Can she track down the killer before more people are
hurt?
8 copies available
The Book Thief
WAR FICTION.
by Markus Zusak
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier,
and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she
picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left
there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books
and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read.
Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever
there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family
hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed
down.
8 copies available
Page 15
We Are Called To Rise
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Laura McBride
Beyond the bright lights and casinos lies the real Las Vegas where four lives will be brought
together by one split-second choice. In the predawn hours, a woman's marriage crumbles
with a single confession. Across town, an immigrant family struggles to get by in the land of
opportunity. Three thousand miles away, a soldier wakes up in hospital with the vague
feeling he's done something awful. In a single moment, these disparate lives intersect. Faced
with seemingly insurmountable loss, each person must decide whether to give in to despair,
or to find the courage and resilience to rise.
8 copies available
All That I Am
WAR FICTION.
By Anna Funder
When Hitler comes to power in 1933, a tight-knit group of friends and lovers become
hunted outlaws overnight. United in their resistance to the madness and tyranny of Nazism,
they flee to the country. Dora, passionate and fearless; her lover, the great playwright Ernst
Toller; her younger cousin Ruth and Ruth’s husband Hans find refuge in London. Here they
take awe-inspiring risks in order to continue their work in secret. But England is not the
safe-haven they think it is, and a single, chilling act of betrayal will tear them apart. Some
seventy years later, Ruth is living out her days in Sydney, making an uneasy peace with the
ghosts of her past, and a part of history that has all but been forgotten. Winner of the
Miles Franklin award in 2012, this novel is sure to enthral readers of all backgrounds.
7 copies available
Guilty Wives
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by James Patterson
Only minutes after Abbie Elliot and her three best friends step off a private helicopter, they
enter the most luxurious, sumptuous, sensually pampering hotel they have ever been to.
Their lavish presidential suit over looks Monte Carlo, and they surrender: to the sun and
pool, to the sashimi and sake, to the Bruno Paillard champagne. For four days they’re free
to live someone else’s life. As the weekend moves into pulsating nightclubs, high-stakes
casinos, and beyond, Abbie is transported to the greatest pleasure and release she has ever
known. In the morning’s harsh light, Abbie awakens on a yacht, surrounded by police.
Something awful has happened– something impossible, unthinkable. Abbie, Winnie, Serena,
and Bryah are arrested and accused of the foulest crime imaginable. And now the vacation
of a lifetime becomes the fight of a lifetime– a fight for survival.
7 copies available
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Matthew Flinders Cat
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
by Bruce Courtenay
Billy O'Shannessy, once a prominent barrister, is now on the street where he sleeps on a
bench outside the State Library. Above him on the window sill rests a bronze statue of
Matthew Flinders' cat, Trim. Ryan is a ten-year-old, a near street kid heading for all the
usual trouble. The two meet and form an unlikely friendship. Appealing to the boy's
imagination by telling him the story of the circumnavigation of Australia as seen through
Trim's eyes, Billy is drawn deeply into Ryan's life and into the Sydney underworld. Over
several months the two begin the mutual process of rehabilitation. Matthew Flinders' Cat is
a modern-day story of a city, its crime, the plight of the homeless and the politics of greed
and perversion. It is also a story of the human heart, with an enchanting glimpse into our
past from the viewpoint of a famous cat.
7 copies available
Talking to Zues
TRAVEL NON-FICTION.
by Jane Shaw
When Jane Shaw secures an internship on an organic garden in Greece, she soon discovers
it will be no easy-going break in the Mediterranean. The five-acre plot is perched on a
steep, remote hillside that's blindingly hot in summer, freezing in winter and overseen by an
eccentric English lady called Joy. Jane's first instinct is to fly home but, with her pride at
stake, she buckles down under the tutelage of the redoubtable Joy, whose rigorous work
ethic is conbined with militancy when faced with her English neighbour, who she suspects
has drilled an illegal bore hole to water his lawns. Without access to friends or modern
technology, Jane gradually finds herself beguiled by the vibrant energy of the place and the
colourful characters who flock to Joy as a wise matriarch. Along the way she is stranded in
the snow, terrified by a snake, wonders at the beauty of the Greek Easter festival and
learns to love Joy's pets and her liberal quantities of ouzo. Talking to Zues is the funny,
authentic and ultimately moving story of her life-changing adventure.
7 copies available
The Harp in the South Novels
AUSTRALIAN FICTION.
By Ruth Park
Covering a span of over thirty years in the life of the Darcy family, these three iconic
novels from Ruth Park take us from first love to hardship via outback Australia and the
streets of Surry Hills. In Missus, we read about the adolescence and courtship of Hughie
Darcy and the innocent Margaret in the dirt and dust of rural Australia. We next meet the
pair in The Harp in the South, where they run a flea-bitten boarding house in Surry Hills
with their two daughters Roie and Dolour. Making ends meet is hard in the slums of
Sydney, and love is not kind to Roie as she takes her first steps into adulthood. Lastly we
watch Dolour grow up all too fast in Poor Man's Orange, as Hughie and Margaret struggle
to keep their relationship alive after so many years together. At times confronting, often
affectionate, this is a remarkable portrait of an Australian working-class family of the time.
7 copies available
Page 17
The Miniaturist
HISTORICAL FICTION.
by Jessie Burton
There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . . On an autumn day in 1686, eighteenyear-old Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of
Amsterdam. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious
merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but instead she is met by his sharp-tongued sister, Marin.
Only later does Johannes appear and present her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a
cabinet-sized replica of their home. It is to be furnished by an elusive miniaturist, whose
tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in unexpected ways . . . Nella is at first
mystified by the closed world of the Brandt household, but as she uncovers its secrets she
realizes the escalating dangers that await them all. Does the miniaturist hold their fate in
her hands? And will she be the key to their salvation or the architect of their downfall?
Beautiful, intoxicating and filled with heart-pounding suspense, The Miniaturist is a
magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.
7 copies available
The Happiest Refugee
BIOGRAPHY.
by Anh Do
Anh Do nearly didn't make it to Australia. His entire family came close to losing their lives
on the sea as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat. This book tells
the incredible, uplifting and inspiring life story of one of our favourite personalities.
Tragedy, humour, heartache and unswerving determination - a big life with big dreams.
Anh's story will move and amuse all who read it.
6 copies available
The Island
HISTORICAL FICTION.
by Victoria Hislop
On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's
past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan
village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives
her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn
more. Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny,
deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at
last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni
and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how
intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful
grip...
6 copies available
Page 18
The Long Walk
WAR NON-FICTION.
by Slavomir Rawicz
Slavomir Rawicz was a young Polish cavalry officer. On 19th November 1939, he was
arrested by the Russians and after brutal interrogation he was sentenced to 25 years in the
Gulags. After a three month journey to Siberia in the depths of winter he escaped with six
companions, realising that to stay in the camp meant almost certain death. In June 1941,
they crossed the trans-Siberian railway and headed south, climbing into Tibet and freedom
nine months later in March 1942 after travelling on foot through some of the harshest
regions in the world, including the Gobi Desert. First published in 1956, this is one of the
world's greatest true stories of adventure, survival and escape, and it has been the
inspiration for the film "The Way Back", directed by Peter Weir and starring Colin Farrell
and Ed Harris.
6 copies available
Those Faraday Girls
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Monica McInerney
As a child, Maggie Faraday grew up in a lively, unconventional house-hold in Tasmania, with
her young mother, four very different aunts and eccentric grandfather. With her mother
often away, all four aunts took turns looking after her– until, just weeks before Maggie’s
sixth birthday, a shocking event changed everything. Twenty years on, Maggie is living alone
in New York City when a surprise visit from her grandfather brings a revelation and a
proposition to reunite the family. As the Faradays gather in Ireland, Maggie begins to realise
that the women she thought she knew so intimately all have something to hide… Those
Faraday girls is a rich and complex story full of warmth, humour and unforgettable women.
Spanning several countries and thirty years, it is a deeply moving novel about family secrets
and lies– and how the memories that bind us together can also keep us apart.
6 copies available
The Lake of Dreams
RELATIONSHIPS FICTION.
by Kim Edwards
At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home to upstate New York from Japan,
only to find herself haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade ago. Old longings
stirred up by Keegan Fall, a local glass artist who was once her passionate first love, lead
her into the unexpected. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family's rambling
lakeside house, she discovers, locked in a window seat, a collection of objects that first
appear to be idle curiosities, but soon reveal a hidden family history. As Lucy explores
these traces of her lineage, a new family narrative emerges. It will link her to a unique slice
of the suffragette movement and yield dramatic insights that will free her to live her life to
its fullest and deepest.
5 copies available
Page 19
The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters
RELATIONSHIPS
FICTION.
by Michelle Lovric
It's rural Ireland in the second half of the nineteenth century, the age of the PreRaphaelites, when Europe burns with a passion for long, flowing locks. So when seven
sisters, born into fatherless poverty, grow up with hair cascading down their backs, to their
ankles, and beyond, men are not slow to recognize their potential. Soon, they're a singing
and dancing septet: Irish jigs kicked out in dusty church halls. But it is not their singing or
their dancing that fills the seats: it is the torrents of hair they let loose at the end of each
show. In an Ireland still hungry and melancholy with the Great Famine, the Swiney hair is a
rich offering. And their hair will take dark-hearted Darcy, bickering twins Berenice and
Enda, plain Pertilly, gentle Oona, wild Ida, and fearful, flame-haired Manticory--the writer of
their on- and off-stage adventures--out of poverty, through the dance halls of Ireland, to
the salons of Dublin and the palazzi of Venice. For their past trails behind the sisters like
the tresses on their heads and their fame and fortune will come at a terrible price.
5 copies available
Trace
THRILLER FICTION.
by Patricia Cornwell
Five years after being sacked as Chief Medical Examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta returns to
Richmond, Virginia, and she is back with a vengeance. A vengeance not of her own making.
Her return, as consultant pathologist in the mysterious death of a teenage girl, ruffles a few
feathers - her own included. Yet Gilly Paulsson's death has stumped the best in the
business.
5 copies available
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