Reading Guide See What I Have Done | Sarah Schmidt | $32.99 | Hachette Schmidt has created a visceral, utterly compelling, and highly original exploration of the murder of the Borden family, and the investigation and subsequent trial of daughter Lizzie. Atmospheric, perplexing and at times very creepy – I could not put this down.
The Last Garden | Eva Hornung | $29.99 | Text Publishing A community’s faith is already fraying when Orion shoots his wife and himself the day their son Benedict returns from boarding school. There’s a human violence and animalistic strength that is explored through Eva’s harrowing prose & vicious story of loss and faith.
The River Sings | Sandra Leigh Price | $32.99 | Harper Collins Mischa says; Transporting readers through 19th century London and across to the penal colony of Australia, this is a mesmerisingly gritty Dickensian tale of a young woman weighted down by her father’s misdeeds. Like The Bird’s Child, Sandra has created another strange and beautifully imagined novel that holds the glitterings and hauntings of the past between its pages.
Closing Down | Sally Abbott | $29.99 | Hachette Conjuring a dark future for Australia, Closing Down gives us a glimpse into a world fractured by a financial crisis and the effects of global climate change. An extraordinary and timely debut novel from a compelling new Australian voice and inaugural winner of The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers.
House of Names l Colm Toibin | $29.99 | Pan Macmillan “I have been acquainted with the smell of death.” From the thrilling imagination of Colm Tóibín comes a retelling of the story of Clytemnestra. The novel brilliantly inhabits the mind of one of Greek myth’s most powerful villains to reveal the love, lust, and pain she feels. Tóibín renders myth plausible and tangible through his graphic, lush, and gripping prose.
AUSTRALIAN FICTION / FICTION
Mother’s Day
Men Without Women | Haruki Murakami | $35.00 | Penguin Across seven tales, Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all. Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic!
The Impossible Fortress | Jason Rekulak | $27.99 | Allen & Unwin Dean says; Set in 1987, a crew of 14-yr-old boys in mismatched clothes, riding around on bikes, are trying to get hold of the latest playboy featuring Wheel of Fortune’s Vanna White. The trials to get hold of this infamous magazine lead them on an almighty misadventure. The love interest is Mary Zelinsky; a 1987 computer geek, writing code on her commodore 64. I really adored this book’s escapism and returning to the days of my youth - it is just perfect fun. Electric Dreams meets Goonies meets Breakfast Club - “they are all the Breakfast Club here, everyones in a clique; sportos, girly-girls and I don’t fit in so that makes me Ally Sheedy.”
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FICTION
The Blood Miracles | Lisa McInerney | $29.99 | Hachette Twenty-year-old Ryan is trying to get his head around who he is just as his boss opens a new black market route from Italy to Ireland. An addictive read that investigates contemporary drug use and the descent into Cork’s criminal underworld.
Anything is Possible | Elizabeth Strout | $29.99 | Penguin Random House Strout’s new collection of radiant short stories link to her previous novel My Name is Lucy Barton, moving beyond first-person narration to multiple perspectives of small-town life. Strout brings forth yet another powerful examination of the painful ambiguities and ambivalences of being human. Based on a True Story | Delphine De Vigan | $24.99 | Bloomsbury Dean says: “Like a balloon being blown up slowly, slowly then held huge and tight- will it pop?“ A gripping psychological thriller where a new friendship spins into obsession. This French blockbuster is impossible to put down! A haunting vision of seduction and betrayal; a book which in its hungering for truth implicates the reader, too--even as it holds us in its thrall.
I’ll Eat When I’m Dead | Barbara Bourland | $29.99 | Hachette A scathing, funny, and subversive satire of the fashion industry and the politics of women’s bodies and women’s work. Everyone thinks Hillary starved to death - but Cat knows her friend’s dieting wasn’t a capital P problem. Going undercover, Cat’s in over her head, and soon becomes snared in a very stylish web of drugs, sex, lies and moisturizer that will change her look - and outlook - forever. Cat’s about to find out what it really means to be a fashion victim. This debut dazzles with style and a ‘Margaret Atwood’ biting insight.
New Boy | Tracy Chevalier | $29.99 | Random House Chevalier’s excellent offering to the Hogarth series of modern, reimagined, Shakespeare plays is a tightly wound and compact retelling of Othello. Transporting the tragedy to a 70’s suburban Washington school, where a disastrous chain of events follows a black student’s arrival at an all white school, Chevalier has successfully captured the original’s exploration of love, betrayal, racism, strength, and weakness. The Shadow Land | Elizabeth Kostova | $32.99 | Text Publishing Kostova is a master of the historical novel and character! She weaves us into the history of Bulgaria seamleesly, draws us into the nuances of Alexandra Boyd’s life, and her fictional journey through Bulgaria’s past and her own. A gently gripping, susepenseful mystery, and a thoughtprovoking meditation on the nature of evil and its vices.
Let Go My Hand | Edward Docx | $29.99 | Picador A darkly comic twenty-firstcentury love story between a son, his brothers and their father. Through these vividly realised characters, it asks elemental questions about how we love, how we live, and what really matters in the end. Docx’s latest novel is as usual - funny, profound, and beautifully written.
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Pussy | Howard Jacobson | $29.99 | Penguin A provocative, savagely funny satire on Donald Trump by Britain’s greatest comic novelist. Pussy is the story of Prince Fracassus, heir to the Duchy of Origen, famed for its golden-gated skyscrapers. He is idle, boastful, thin-skinned and egotistic. Could he, in that case, be the very leader to make the country great again?
The Baltimore Boys | Joel Dicker | $32.99 | Hachette Fresh from the staggering success of The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, this terrific pageturning mystery can be read as a stand-alone. The story takes place on either side of the Harry Quebert Affair and does not touch on this story beyond characterisation. The dynamic world of the three Goldman cousins who are more like brothers, and their love and jealousy for each other is the setting for the drama and the mystery.
The Lucky One | Caroline Overington | $32.99 | Harper Collins An old castle, a fresh body and an unsolved mystery. As three generations of the well-respected Alden-Stowe family come under scrutiny, police unearth a twisted web of rivalries, alliances, deceit, and treachery. Who has lied? Who will survive? And who, amidst all the horror and betrayal, is the lucky one?
CRIME FICTION / FANTASY
Into the Water l Paula Hawkins | $32.99 | Penguin Random House Amelia says: In her first book since The Girl On the Train, Hawkins has crafted a sinister novel that interrogates the deceitfulness of memory and all the dangerous ways that the past can reach its long arm into our present and future. With a rich cast of characters and exactly the sorts of twists and turns that readers relish, this is a book to consume over a weekend.
Since We Fell | Dennis Lehane | $29.99 | Hachette Rachel’s husband adores her. But his mysterious behaviour forces her to probe for the truth about her beloved husband.This novel brings together Lehane’s trademark emphathetic characterisation, razor-sharp dialogue, stunning atmosphere and breakneck twists.
Rotherweird | Andrew Caldecott | $32.99 | Hachette Welcome to Rotherweird: a town with no maps, no guidebooks and no history, but many dark secrets; diverse architectural styles, narrow streets, avant garde science, and offbeat customs. Bold and intricate, this book is an arcane murder mystery with twist of Deborah Harkness and Ben Aaronovitch.
New York 2140 | Kim Stanley Robinson | $29.99 | Hachette The waters rose, submerging New York City. But the residents adapted and it remained a bustling, vibrant metropolis. Though changed forever. Through the eyes of the varied inhabitants of one building Robinson shows us how one of our great cities will change with the rising tides.
Borne | Jeff Vandermeer | $24.99 | Harper Collins A ruined city of the future lives in fear of a despotic, gigantic flying bear, driven mad by the tortures inflicted on him by a mysterious biotech firm. After recomending the Southern Reach trilogy to all, we are excited to share another novel that is simultaneously harrowing, dark, funny and uplifting!
The Boy on the Bridge | M R Carey | $29.99 | Hachette Returning to the world of the Girl with All the Gifts, Carey has created a claustrophic and tense prequel, focusing the story on the scientists occupying the tricked out, armoured motor home known as “Rosie” in the lead up to the disease that will soon consumed the world. A gripping mix of science and action.
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BIOGRAPHY
Beyond the Rock | Janelle McCulloch | $35.00 | Echo Beyond the Rock looks at the myth of Picnic at Hanging Rock and the story behind it. It examines Joan Lindsay’s enigmatic life, much of which she kept secret from the world. This is the story of one of Australia’s most famous novels, and the author who kept its secrets until she died.
Work Strife Balance | Mia Freedman | $34.99 | Pan Macmillan This book is for any woman who’s ever asked: ‘Am I the only one who isn’t quite coping?’ Here is Mia Freedman’s low road to the top - a fearless, hilarious, and inspiring collection of modern misadventures to read, relate to and rejoice in.
The Good Girl of Chinatown l Jenevieve Chang | $32.99 | Penguin From Sydney suburbia to the grey clouds of London, Jenevieve Chang has been running away for as long as she can remember. Now she has arrived in Shanghai, a city from her family’s past. But this glittering metropolis throws up more hurdles than she bargains for. A true story of cultural clash and hedonism gone awry as a good girl from a conservative Chinese-Australian family becomes a Shanghai showgirl. Admissions | Henry Marsh | $27.99 | Hachette Henry Marsh has spent a lifetime operating on the surgical frontline. There have been exhilarating highs and devastating lows, but his love for the practice of neurosurgery has never wavered. In this searing, provocative and deeply personal memoir, the bestselling author of Do No Harm finds new purpose in his own life as he approaches the end of his professional career, and a fresh understanding of what matters to us all in the end.
The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller | Carol Baxter | $32.99 | Allen & Unwin The remarkable true story of a beguiling Melbourne housewife who in the 1920s seeks international fame, fortune and adventure as an aviator and finds herself as the central figure in a sensational American murder trial. The Good Girl Stripped Bare | Tracey Spicer | $29.99 | Harper Collins When Tracey was sacked by email after having a baby, she took legal action against the TV network for pregnancy discrimination. In this frank and funny ‘femoir’ - part memoir, part manifesto - Tracey ‘sheconstructs’ the structural barriers facing women in the workplace and encourages us all to shake off the shackles of the good girl.
From Cradle to Stage | Virginia Hanlon Grohl | $32.99 | Hachette An intimate portrait of what makes a rock star by Virginia Grohl, the mother of Dave Grohl. Virginia often wondered about the mystical force that urges some of us to listen, to play, to surround ourselves with music. So began a twoyear odyssey, where she had conversations with women from all over the world.
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Guilt Trip | Kasey Edwards | $27.99 | Black Inc. Kasey reflects on how being a woman often feels like a test. One she flunks. From her body to her mothering skills, relationships and career, Kasey has managed to feel guilty about pretty much everything. And let’s not even mention the epidural, elective caesarean and baby formula. In Guilt Trip, she explores the shame she shouldn’t have to feel.
The Pleasures of Leisure | Robert Dessaix | $29.99 | Penguin ‘To play is to be master of your time’. In today’s crazily busy world the importance of making time for leisure is more vital than ever. Yet so many of us lack a talent for it. Robert Dessaix shows, in this thoughtful and witty book, how taking leisure seriously gives us back our freedom – to enjoy life, to revel in it, in fact; to deepen our sense of who we are as human beings.
Fighting Hislam | Susan Garland | $29.99 | Melbourne University The Muslim community that is portrayed to the West is a misogynist’s playground; within the Muslim community, feminism is often regarded with sneering hostility. Yet between those two views there is a diverse bunch who fight sexism from within. Here, Carland talks with Muslim women about how they are making a stand for their sex, while holding fast to their faith.
How Emotions are Made | Lisa Feldman Barrett | $32.99 | Pan Macmillan Emotions feel automatic to us; that’s why scientists have long assumed that emotions are hardwired in the brain. Today the science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution. Barrett’s theory of emotion has intriguing practical applications in psychology, health care, law enforcement, and our understanding of the human mind.
NON-FICTION
Depends What You Mean By Extremist | John Safran | $34.99 | Penguin Drinking shots with nationalists and gobbling falafel with radicals, Safran was there the year the extreme became the mainstream. In this hilarious and disorienting adventure he gets among our diverse community of white nationalists, ISIS supporters, anarchists and more, digging away at the contradictions that many would prefer be left unexamined. Sydney Noir | Michael Duffy & Nick Hordern | $34.99 | NewSouth In the late 1960s Sydney was one of the most prosperous places on earth and one of the most corrupt. The whole corrupt carnival was run by the police in an arrangement known as ‘the joke’. In Sydney Noir Michael Duffy and Nick Hordern revisit this dark yet fascinating chapter of Sydney’s history, telling stories that would be unbelievable were they not true.
Rebel Cities | Michael Rapport | $32.99 | Hachette London, Paris and New York in the eighteenth century, as today, were places where political authority, commerce and money, art and intellectual life intersected. Rebel Cities explores the stormy debate about the nature of cities in this century. Rapport vividly evokes the sights, sounds and smells of these cities, masterfully weaving their history with the politics of revolution.
Defiant Earth | Clive Hamilton | $29.99 | Allen & Unwin Humans have become so powerful that we are disrupting the functioning of the earth. Hamilton argues this forces us to rethink what kind of creature we humans are, and to acknowledge the power we still have to change the world for good.
The Amazons | John Man | $34.99 | Penguin In Amazons, John Man travels to the grasslands of Central Asia, from the edge of the ancient Greek world to the borderlands of China, to discover the truth about the warrior women mythologized as Amazons. Man redefines our understanding of the Amazons and their culture.
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COOKING
Coastline l Lucio Galletto and David Dale | $59.99 | Murdoch Books A river of gold flows through western Italy, southern France and eastern Spain. It’s the olive oil that links three great cuisines, along with a love of garlic, anchovies, peppers, fresh herbs and seasonal vegetables. In stories and recipes, and beautiful location photography, Coastline explores the legacy of the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and the Vikings, who left the gift of a ‘cuisine of the sun’ flavoured with generosity and conviviality.
Mountain Berries and Desert Spices | Sumayya Usmani | $39.99 | Murdoch Books Usmani introduces home cooks to Pakistani desserts and explores their unique significance in the country’s culture and traditions. The 70 authentic and family recipes travel from the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains in the north via the fertile Punjab to the Arabian sea in the south where saffron and cardamom-laced sweet recipes are a favourite.
My Kind of Food | Valli Little | $39.99 | Harper Collins My Kind of Food is Valli Little’s most personal cookbook yet. She shares 100 recipes that she has cooked time and again to share with the people she loves. Whether you want to prepare a memorable meal, have some friends over for a weekend lunch, or quickly whip up something wonderful for your hungry family, this is the closest thing to having Valli cook for you at home.
Green Kitchen at Home | David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl | $39.99 | Hardie Grant In Green Kitchen At Home, authors and bloggers David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl are back, this time with simple yet delicious recipes that can be cooked during a busy week, and will allow you to sneak more vegetables into your diet. This book features wholesome food that everyone, including meat-eaters, will love accompanied by stunning photography and food styling, as well as personal anecdotes.
Vegan | Jean-Christian Jury | $59.95 | Phaidon With nearly 500 vegetable-driven recipes, Vegan, inspired by cuisines around the work, brings vegan home cooking to new levels of deliciousness.Featuring dishes from countries ranging from Albania to Zambia, it showcases the culinary diversity of vegan cuisine, highlighting regional fruits and vegetables, traditional cooking techniques, and universally delectable flavours. Home cooks will discover sweet and savoury food, accompanied by straightforward instructions and gorgeous colour photography.
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Masterchef: Streetfood of the World | Genevieve Taylor | $45.00 | Bloomsbury A celebration of a food trend that continues to grow, delighting and enticing foodies. From burritos, churros and pretzels to shrimp po’boy, Pad Thai or aromatic buns, it is estimated that 2.5 billion people per day eat street food across the world. These recipes will delight the home chef who wants to create sensational street snacks in their own kitchens.
Silly Isles | Eric Campbell | $32.99 | Harper Collins From the bestselling author of Absurdistan, a hilarious tour through small but very strange places. In the islands he surveys here he finds microcosms of society, complete with long-lasting blood feuds, hidden wars, bizarre histories; Wry, witty and clever, with a wonderful eye for the absurd.
The Art of the Natural Home l Rebecca Sullivan | $39.99 | Simon and Schuster This book is perfect for those interested in sustainability, natural products and mindfulness. It’s all about taking the time to create your own homemade products, from facemasks to floor polish and from medicinal honey to massage oil. Taking inspiration from her grandmother’s generation, Rebecca Sullivan has put together this thoughtful and appealing manual to caring for yourself and your home. The first part of the book is dedicted to Home and the second to Health and Beauty. This inspiring guide is a must for anyone interested in living a simpler, more purposeful life.
Styling the Stars | Angela Cartwright and Tom McLaren | $34.99 | NewSouth In 1997 Twentieth Century Fox established an archive of all-but-forgotten production stills taken during the filming of some of their most memorable movies. Published here for the first time, this archive includes hundreds of riveting portraits of Hollywood’s most treasured leading men and women as they were prepped for the camera.
LIFESTYLE / GIFT / ART
Ice Cream for Breakfast | Laura Jane Williams | $32.99 | Hachette Full of spirit and enthusiasm, this book is the permission slip all too-grown-up-fortheir-own-good-but-secretlyscared-of-adulting adults need to locate their innerchild, so that we might all relax enough to laugh harder, wonder more, and marvel at magic on the daily.
A to Z Great Modern Writers | Caroline Taggart | $24.99 | Hachette Artist and graphic designer Andy Tuohy turns his hand to the world of modern literature in this new instalment of the A-Z SERIES. Rendered in his distinctive style, this new book features portraits of 52 key modern writers significant for their contribution to literature,from A (Maya Angelou, Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood) to Z (Stefan Zweig) via Samuel Beckett, Marcel Proust, R.K. Narayan, Virginia Woolf and more. Five Forget Mother’s Day | Bruno Vincent | $19.99 | Quercus Join Julian, George, Dick, Anne and Timmy the dog as they try to celebrate Mother’s Day with Aunt Fanny. George has past form in forgetting - not least her mum’s birthday and Christmas presents - so tensions are running high even for the charged normality of their mother/daughter bond.
My Horizon | Tracey Moffat | $49.99 | Thames & Hudson Tracey Moffatt is arguably Australia’s most successful artist. My Horizon is the first book on this esteemed artist in ten years. With all new work, including large-scale photography and film, this publication situates Moffatt’s work in the international arena as an artist who consistently takes the tempo of our times. My Horizon will present a compendium of texts that reflect on the artist’s highly political and personal fictions and explore a range of themes.
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CHILDREN’S FICTION
Doodle Cat is Bored | Kat Patrick & Lauren Marriott | $22.99 | Scribe Doodle Cat is back and he is very bored. Following on from their debut picture book I Am Doodle Cat, writer Kat Patrick and illustrator Lauren Marriott have created another hilarious tale featuring the irreverent bright red squiggle who loves just about everything.
The Lotterys Plus One | Emma Donoghue | $14.99 | Macmillan Meet the Lotterys: a unique and diverse family featuring four parents, seven kids and five pets - all living happily together in their big old house, Camelottery. When their grumpy and intolerant grandad comes to stay, everything is turned upside down. Emma Donoghue’s first novel for children, with blackand-white illustrations throughout, is funny, charming and full of heart.
Wolfie: An Unlikely Hero | Deborah Abela and Connah Brecon | $24.99 | Penguin Fairytales are nonsense. They’re full of wolves pestering pigs and picking on sweet little girls in red hoods. I, The Wolf, am sick of being the bad guy. Wolfie may want to be a hero, but he’s about to discover that arguing with this book’s narrator is not the best way to improve his image.
The Turners: Fully Doomed | Mick Elliott | $14.99 | Hachette Leo Lennox is in big trouble. Actually, every Turner on the planet is in big trouble: a deranged scientist is threatening to expose their secret world and destroy them all. This time, it’s global! Can Leo Lennox save the world’s Turners from destruction? The riotous and fast-paced conclusion to the bestselling Turners trilogy.
Begin, End, Begin | Ed. Danielle Binks | $24.99 | Harper Collins The YA event of the year. It’s a celebration of Australian YA and its diversity! It’s an emotional rollercoaster and it’s beautiful. It is sure to sit on your bedside table to be cherished and savoured over and over again. With brilliantly entertaining short stories from sci-fi, to magical realism, to fantasy, to contemporary, this allnew collection will show the world exactly how much there is to love about Aussie YA.
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Release | Patrick Ness | $24.99 | Walker Books Today will change Adam Thorn’s life. Between his religious family, unpleasant boss and his ex-boyfriend, the bindings of his world are coming undone. And way across town, a ghost has risen from the lake. Is there time for Adam to find his release? A startling and tender novel about how to let yourself love and set yourself free by Ness, author of A Monster Calls.
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