2023 Book Club Reading List & Program Details

BOOK CLUB

GRIFFITH CITY LIBRARY

A FAREWELL TO ARMS Ernest Hemingway

In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the 'war to end all wars'. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded and twice decorated. Out of his experiences came 'A Farewell to Arms'. Hemingway's description of war is unforgettable. He recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy with total conviction. But A Farewell to Arms is not only a novel of war. In it Hemingway has also created a love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion.

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW

Amor Towles

On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all?

A ROOM MADE OF LEAVES

Kate Grenville

What if Elizabeth Macarthur - wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydney - had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? That’s the starting point for A Room Made of Leaves, a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented

A SPARK OF LIGHT

How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation and, hopefully, understanding.

A THEATRE FOR DREAMERS

Polly Samson

Erica is eighteen and ready for freedom. It's the summer of 1960 when she lands on the sun-baked Greek island of Hydra where she is swept up in a circle of bohemian poets, painters, musicians, writers and artists, living tangled lives. Life on their island paradise is heady, dream-like, a string of seemingly endless summer days. But nothing can last forever.

Jodi Picoult

AFTER THE FLOOD

A little more than a century from now, our world has been utterly transformed. After years of rising floodwaters, all that's left is an archipelago of mountaintop colonies surrounded by a deep expanse of open water. Civilization as it once was is gone. Bands of pirates roam the waters, in search of goods and women to breed. Some join together to create a new kind of society, while others sail alone, barely surviving.

AMERICAN DIRT Jeanine Cummins

Lydia lives in Acapulco. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while cracks are beginning to show in Acapulco because of the cartels, Lydia’s life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. But after her husband’s tell-all profile of the newest drug lord is published, none of their lives will ever be the same. Forced to flee, Lydia and Luca find themselves joining the countless people trying to reach the United States. Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

ANOTHER WOMAN'S CHILD Kerry Fisher

Jo had thought that her life – and her heart – was full With a busy job, a husband and a teenage daughter who is going off the rails, keeping her life running smoothly had already felt hard enough But now Jo sits at the funeral of her best friend, Ginny, crushed by the loss of a friendship that had endured for 30 years: from college and their first days at work through to settling down and raising their own children Against her husband’s wishes, Jo has made a life-changing decision: to take in Ginny’s teenage son, Victor, and raise him as her own Despite her misgivings, Jo feels she had no choice: Ginny was a single parent, and Victor had no other family who could take care of him But Victor’s arrival is about to break open the fragile cracks that were already forming on the surface of Jo’s family life and in her small rural community and expose a secret that has remained hidden for many years, with devastating consequences

ANY ORDINARY DAY Leigh Sales

As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media. But one particular string of bad news stories - and a terrifying brush with her own mortality - sent her looking for answers about how vulnerable each of us is to a life-changing event. What are our chances of actually experiencing one? What do we fear most and why? And when the worst does happen, what comes next?

BILA YARRUDHANGGALANGDHURAY

Anita Heiss

The powerful Murrumbidgee River surges through town leaving death and destruction in its wake. It is a stark reminder that while the river can give life, it can just as easily take it away. Wagadhaany is one of the lucky ones. She survives. But is her life now better than the fate she escaped? Forced to move away from her miyagan, she walks through each day with no trace of dance in her step, her broken heart forever calling her back home to Gundagai When she meets Wiradyuri stockman Yindyamarra, Wagadhaany’s heart slowly begins to heal But still, she dreams of a better life, away from the degradation of being owned. She longs to set out along the river of her ancestors, in search of lost family and country. Can she find the courage to defy the White man’s law? And if she does, will it bring hope or heartache?

BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE Trent Dalton

Life is pretty tough right now for twelve-year-old Eli – what with his mute brother, a convicted murderer for a babysitter, a drug-dealing stepfather, an incarcerated mother and a long-lost father – surely it can’t get any worse?

CLARKE

Holly Throsby

On a hot morning in 1991 in the regional town of Clarke, Barney Clarke (no relation) is woken by the unexpected arrival of many policemen: they are going to search his backyard for the body of a missing woman. Next door, Leonie Wallace and little Joe watch the police cars through their kitchen window. Leonie has been waiting for this day for six years. She is certain that her friend - Ginny Lawson - is buried in that backyard under a slab of suspicious concrete. But the fate of Ginny Lawson is not the only mystery in Clarke. Barney lives alone in a rented house with a ring on his finger, but where is Barney's wife? Leonie lives with four-year-old Joe, but where is Joe's mother? Clarke is a story of family and violence, of identity and longing, of unlikely connections and the comedy of everyday life. At its centre stands Leonie Wallace, a travel agent who has never travelled, a warm woman full of love and hope and grief, who must steer Joe safely through a very strange time indeed.

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

Anthony Doerr

Bound together by a single ancient text, the unforgettable characters of Cloud Cuckoo Land are dreamers and outsiders figuring out the world around them: thirteen-year-old Anna and Omeir, an orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy, on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour and octogenarian Zeno in an attack on a public library in present-day Idaho; and Konstance, decades from now, who turns to the oldest stories to guide her community in peril

THE CONFESSION Jo Spain

The moment that the murderer turns himself in to the police when he could have easily escaped detection, The Confession announces itself as an exceptional murder mystery, full of the unexpected to the very last page From the mystifying confession to the clever jig-saw puzzle of half-truths and red herrings and a superb cast of deeply interesting characters, Jo Spain has written a psychological thriller that is both inventive and utterly addictive. The truth lies buried somewhere in the past and as the characters settle down to tell their stories, secrets surface

THE COUNTESS OF KIRRIBILLI

Joyce Morgan

Elizabeth von Arnim was a bestselling novelist likened to Jane Austen for her witty and observational style After one of her books had a cameo on Downton Abbey, she was rediscovered as 'the forgotten feminist who is flowering again' She may have been born on the shores of Sydney Harbour as the daughter of a shipping merchant, but after young Elizabeth travelled from Sydney to London in 1869 she discovered society and society discovered her She made her court debut before Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace and was pursued by the Prussian count Henning August von Armnin-Shlagenthin, whom she married even though she was full of doubt The very formal world of European aristocracy became her life and the subject for her early novels that soon turned her into a literary sensation on both sides of the Atlantic Elizabeth von Armin was an extraordinary woman who lived an exceptional life during exciting, glamorous and changing times that spans a shifting world that started with the innocence of Victorian Sydney and finished with the march of Hitler through Europe

Andy and Laura are good parents. They tell their son Connor that he can go out with friends to celebrate completing his exams, but he must be home by midnight. When Connor misses his curfew, it sets off a series of events that will change the lives of five families forever. Because five teenagers went into the woods that night, but only four came out. And telling the truth might mean losing everything...

CUTTER'S END

Margaret Hickey

New Year’s Eve, 1989. Eighteen-year-old Ingrid Mathers is hitchhiking her way to Alice Springs. Bored, hungover and separated from her friend Joanne, she accepts a lift to the remote town of Cutters End. July 2021. Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti is seconded to a recently reopened case, one in which he has a personal connection. Three decades ago, a burnt and broken body was discovered in scrub off the Stuart Highway, 300km south of Cutters End. Though ultimately ruled an accidental death, many people - including a high-profile celebrity - are convinced it was murder. When Mark’s interviews with the witnesses in the old case files go nowhere, he has no choice but to make the long journey up the highway to Cutters End. And with the help of local Senior Constable Jagdeep Kaur, he soon learns that this death isn’t the only unsolved case that hangs over the town.

THE DEEP

Kyle Perry

On the Tasman Peninsula, nestled amidst the largest sea-cliffs in the southern hemisphere, is Shacktown. Here the Dempsey family have run a drug ring for generations, using the fishing industry and the deadly Black Wind as cover. But when thirteen-year-old Forest Dempsey walks out of the ocean, bruised and branded, everything is at risk – because Forest has been presumed dead for the last seven years.

DEVOTION

Hannah Kent

Prussia, 1836 - Hanne Nussbaum is a child of nature - she would rather run wild in the forest than conform to the limitations of womanhood In her village of Kay, Hanne is friendless and considered an oddity until she meets Thea Ocean, 1838 - The Nussbaums are Old Lutherans, bound by God's law and at odds with their King's order for reform Forced to flee religious persecution the families of Kay board a crowded, diseaseriddled ship bound for the new colony of South Australia In the face of brutal hardship, the beauty of whale song enters Hanne's heart, along with the miracle of her love for Thea Theirs is a bond that nothing can break The whale passed The music faded South Australia, 1838 - A new start in an old land God, society and nature itself decree Hanne and Thea cannot be together But within the impossible is devotion

THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS Pip Williams

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.

On a sweltering Friday afternoon in Durton, best friends Ronnie and Esther leave school together Esther never makes it home Ronnie's going to find her, she has a plan Lewis will help. Their friend can't be gone, Ronnie won't believe it. Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels can believe it She has seen what people are capable of She knows more than anyone how, in a moment of weakness, a person can be driven to do something they never thought possible. Lewis can believe it too. But he can't reveal what he saw that afternoon at the creek without exposing his own secret Five days later, Esther's buried body is discovered

THE END OF CUTHBERT CLOSE

Cassie Hamer

Food stylist Cara, corporate lawyer Alex and stay-at-home mum Beth couldn't be more different If it wasn't for the fact they live next door to each other in Cuthbert Close, they'd never have met and bonded over Bundt cake The Close is an oasis of calm and kindness The kind of street where kids play cricket together and neighbours pitch in each year for an end of summer party. But no one's told Charlie Devine, glamorous wife of online lifestyle guru, The Primal Guy. When she roars straight into the party with her huge removal truck and her teenage daughter with no care or regard for decades-old tradition, the guacamole really hits the fan You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your neighbours

EVERY LIE I'VE EVER TOLD

Rosie Waterland

It was all going so well for Rosie Waterland. Until it wasn't. Until late one evening she found herself in a hospital emergency bed, trembling and hooked to a drip. Over the course of that long, painful night, she kept thinking about how ironic it was, that right in the middle of writing a book about lies, she'd ended up telling the most significant lie of all. A raw, beautiful, sad, shocking - and very, very funny - memoir of all the lies we tell others and the lies we tell ourselves.

EVERYBODY'S SON

Thrity Umrigar

The bestselling, critically acclaimed author of The Space Between Us and The World We Found deftly explores issues of race, class, privilege and power and asks us to consider uncomfortable moral questions in this probing, ambitious, emotionally wrenching novel of two families - one black, one white.

FAKE

Stephanie Wood

When Stephanie Wood meets a former architect turned farmer she embarks on an exhilarating romance with him He seems compassionate, loving, truthful They talk about the future She falls in love. She also becomes increasingly beset by anxiety at his frequent cancellations, no-shows and bizarre excuses She starts to wonder, who is this man? When she ends the relationship Stephanie reboots her journalism skills and embarks on a romantic investigation She discovers a story of mindboggling duplicity and manipulation She learns that the man she thought she was in love with doesn’t exist. She also finds she is not alone; that the world is full of smart people who have suffered at the hands of liars, cheats, narcissists, fantasists and phonies, people enormously skilled in the art of deception

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD Thomas Hardy

Bathsheba Everdene, independent and uncompromising, comes to a small rural community to take up a position as a farmer, where her confident presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the seducer Sergeant Troy and devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak As each man complicates her life, Bathsheba becomes an object of superstition, judgement and betrayal.

THE FARM Joanne Ramos

Ambitious businesswoman Mae Yu runs Golden Oaks – a luxury retreat transforming the fertility economy – where women get the very best of everything, so long as they play by the rules. Jane is a young immigrant in search of a better future. Stuck living in a cramped dorm with her baby daughter and shrewd aunt Ate, she sees an unmissable chance to change her life. But at what cost? A novel that explores the role of luck and merit, class, ambition and sacrifice.

FROM SCRATCH

Tembi Locke

From Scratch chronicles three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from Saro’s family and his origins, now she finds solace and nourishment - literally and spiritually - at her mother in law’s table In the Sicilian countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close knit community, and timeless traditions and wisdom that light a path forward All along the way she reflects on her and Saro’s incredible romance - an indelible love story that leaps off the pages.

THE GODMOTHERS

Monica McInerney

Eliza Miller grew up in Australia as the only daughter of a troubled young mother, but with the constant support of two watchful godmothers, Olivia and Maxie. Despite her tricky childhood, she always felt loved and secure. Until, just before her eighteenth birthday, a tragic event changed her life. Thirteen years on, Eliza is deliberately living as safely as possible, avoiding close relationships and devoting herself to her job. Out of the blue, an enticing invitation from one of her godmothers prompts a leap into the unknown. Within a fortnight, Eliza finds herself in the middle of a complicated family in Edinburgh. There's no such thing as an ordinary day any more. Yet, amidst the chaos, Eliza begins to blossom. She finds herself not only hopeful about the future, but ready to explore her past, including the biggest mystery of all - who is her father?

THE GOOD TEACHER

Petronella McGovern

Every evening, Allison watches her husband's new house, desperate to find some answers. Every morning, she puts on a brave face to teach kindergarten. She's a good teacher, everyone says so - this stalking is just a tiny crack in her usual self-control. A late enrolment into her class brings little Gracie Allison takes the sick girl under her wing, smothering Gracie with the love she can't give her own son When Gracie has a chance to go to America for treatment, Allison whips up the community into a frenzied fundraising drive But as others start to question her judgement and the police arrive at her door, Allison wonders if she can trust herself Has she crossed a line? How far will the good teacher go to change a life? And whose life will that be?

GHOSTS OF THE PAST Tony Park

Is a century-old secret still worth dying for? Will tracing the history of a maverick Australian adventurer in southern Africa lead two intrepid researchers to untold riches or to suffer the same unimaginable fate? Historical adventure meets modern thriller in this epic story of war, betrayal, greed and love, based on true events

THE GIVER OF STARS

Jojo Moyes

Alice Wright makes an impulsive decision to marry wealthy American Bennett Van Cleve and leave her home and family in England behind. But stuffy, disapproving Baileyville, Kentucky, where her husband favours work over his wife and is dominated by his overbearing father, is not the adventure - or the escape - that she hoped for. That is, until she meets Margery O'Hare, a troublesome woman - and daughter of a notorious felon - the town wishes to forget. Margery's on a mission to spread the wonder of books and reading to the poor and lost - and she needs Alice's help. Trekking alone under big open skies, through wild mountain forests, Alice, Margery and their fellow sisters of the trail discover freedom, friendship - and a life to call their own.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH John Steinbeck

A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.

HAMNET

Maggie O'Farrell

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH

Eddie Jaku

During the Holocaust, Eddie Jaku faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on a Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom and living his best life He now believes he is the 'happiest man on Earth' Shortly after his 100th birthday, Eddie published his memoir, The Happiest Man on Earth, wanting to share all he has learned about hope, kindness and friendship

HELLO SUNSHINE

Sunshine Mackenzie is living the dream. A lifestyle guru, Sunshine is beloved by millions of people who tune into her YouTube cooking show, and millions more scour her website for recipes, wisdom, and suggestions for how to curate a perfect life. Sunshine seems to have it all. But she's hiding who she really is. And when her secret is revealed, her fall from grace is catastrophic. What Sunshine does in the ashes of destruction will save her in more ways than she can imagine.

THE HERD Emily Edwards

You should never judge how someone chooses to raise their child. Elizabeth and Bryony are polar opposites but their unexpected friendship has always worked They're the best of friends, and godmothers to each other's daughters - because they trust that the safety of their children is both of their top priority But what if their choice could harm your own child? Little do they know that they differ over one very important issue. And when Bryony, afraid of being judged, tells what is supposed to be a harmless white lie before a child's birthday party, the consequences are more catastrophic than either of them could ever have imagined

HERE IN THE AFTER Marion Frith

Anna has survived the worst. So has Nat. Two broken souls, struggling to find a place in a world they no longer fit Anna is the victim of a terrorist attack in which eleven others were murdered Nat is an Army veteran who fought in Afghanistan They have so little in common And so much A friendship stirs between them, tentative and unlikely, its foundation the violence they have seen and the memories that stalk them. Together, they begin to search for a way back home. But when Nat's wife falls unexpectedly pregnant, terrible ghosts from his wartime past rise up and much more than a friendship is at stake Here in the after is a poignant and uplifting exploration of the legacy of trauma and the healing power of connection

THE HERMIT

S. R. White

After a puzzling death in the wild bushlands of Australia, detective Dana Russo has just hours to interrogate the prime suspect - a silent, inscrutable man found at the scene of the crime, who disappeared without trace 15 years earlier. But where has he been? Why won't he talk? And exactly how dangerous is he? Without conclusive evidence to prove his guilt, Dana faces a desperate race against time to persuade him to speak. But as each interview spirals with fevered intensity, Dana must reckon with her own traumatic past to reveal the shocking truth . . .

HONEYBEE

Craig Silvey

Late in the night, fourteen-year-old Sam Watson steps onto a quiet overpass, climbs over the rail and looks down at the road far below. At the other end of the same bridge, an old man, Vic, smokes his last cigarette The two see each other across the void. A fateful connection is made, and an unlikely friendship blooms. Slowly, we learn what led Sam and Vic to the bridge that night Bonded by their suffering, each privately commits to the impossible task of saving the other

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history. Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.

THE JAM QUEENS

Josephine Moon

When an invitation to travel across Australia on the Ghan for her mother's seventieth birthday comes her way, she is at first apprehensive But the trip offers a precious opportunity to spend some quality time with both her disgruntled mother, Valeria, and her distant daughter, Holly, as well as her meddling great-aunt, Myrtle The four generations of the family, all single women, will be reunited at last. As the iconic train chugs its way beneath majestic desert skies, Aggie's difficult past resurfaces, her business comes under threat, and long-held family rifts reignite To complicate things further, she's distracted by the attentions of a handsome younger man on his own search for meaning in some of the country's most remote and magical places.

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

David Grann

A haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history . In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, they began to be killed off.

THE LABYRINTH Amanda Lohrey

Erica Marsden's son, an artist, has been imprisoned for homicidal negligence In a state of grief, Erica cuts off all ties to family and friends, and retreats to a quiet hamlet on the southeast coast near the prison where he is serving his sentence. There, in a rundown shack, she obsesses over creating a labyrinth by the ocean. To build it-to find a way out of her quandaryErica will need the help of strangers And that will require her to trust, and to reckon with her past The Labyrinth is a hypnotic story of guilt and denial, of the fraught relationship between parents and children, that is also a meditation on how art can both be ruthlessly destructive and restore sanity. It shows Amanda Lohrey to be at the peak of her powers.

THE LAST VOYAGE OF MRS HENRY PARKER

Joanna Pell

As the wife of retired ship's doctor Dr Henry Parker, Evelyn is living out her twilight years aboard the Golden Sunset. Every night she dresses for dinner - gown, tiara, runners - and regales her fellow passengers with stories of a glamorous life travelling the world in luxury. But now Henry is missing, and it is up to Evelyn to find him. This story is a love letter to the memories we make over the course of a lifetime, and how the heart remembers what matters, even when the mind has long forgotten.

LATE IN THE DAY Tessa Hadley

Alex and Christine and Zach and Lydia have been inseparable since their twenties. From student house-shares and grubby pubs to proper homes and grown-up careers, the two couples' lives have been interlinked for decades. Then one evening, Alex and Christine receive a call from a distraught Lydia. Zach is dead. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. But instead of their loss bringing them closer, the three of them find that love and sorrow give way to anger and bitterness as old entanglements and resentments rise from the past.

LET HER FLY Ziauddin Yousafzai

Let Her Fly looks at what it means to love, to have courage and fight for what is inherently right. Personal in its detail and universal in its themes, this is a landmark book from the man behind the phenomenon, and shows why we must all keep fighting for the rights of girls and women around the world.

LIKE MOTHER Cassandra Austin

It's 1969 and mankind has leapt up to the moon, but a young mother in small-town Australia can't get past the kitchen door. Louise Ashland -is exhausted - her husband, Steven, is away on the road and her mother, Gladys, won't leave her alone. At least her baby, Dolores, has finally stopped screaming and is sweetly sleeping in her cot. Right where Louise left her. Or is she? As the day unravels, Louise will unearth secrets her mother - and perhaps her own mind - have worked hard to keep buried. But what piece of family lore is so terrible that it has been kept hidden all this time? And what will exposing it reveal about mother and daughter?

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE Celeste Ng

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned - from the layout of the winding roads to the colours of the houses to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principal is playing by the rules Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter, Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community

THE LOST APOTHECARY Sarah Penner

A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.

Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.

Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

THE LOST MAN Jane Harper

Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of outback Queensland. They are at the stockman's grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family's quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish. Something had been troubling Cam. Did he lose hope and walk to his death? Because if he didn't, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects...

LOVEBIRDS

Amanda Hampson

In their youth, lovebirds Elizabeth and Ray had to fight to be together. Their future was full of promise and, blessed with children and careers, their happiness complete. But a twist of fate changed their lives forever. Now in her sixties, Elizabeth is desperately lonely. She rarely sees her two adult sons and her closest friend is a talkative budgie. But when her grandson, Zach, gets into trouble with the police, she decides to take him on a road trip to find his grandfather, her lost love Ray, in the hope of mending their broken family. Two less compatible travelling companions would be hard to find, as they set off on an unlikely adventure into the wilds of the northern NSW hinterland. What they discover along the way, about Ray and each other, has the power to transform them all. In trying to save Zach, Elizabeth might just save herself.

LUCKY'S

Andrew Pippos

Lucky's is a story of family. It is also about a man called Lucky. His restaurant chain. A fire that changed everything. A New Yorker article which might save a career. The mystery of a missing father. An impostor who got the girl. An unthinkable tragedy. A roll of the dice. And a story of love, lost, sought and won again, (at last).

THE MAID Nita Prose

Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. She’s just a maid – why should anyone take notice? But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up. And as Molly becomes embroiled in the hunt for the truth, following the clues whispering in the hallways of the Regency Grand, she discovers a power she never knew was there. She’s just a maid – but what can she see that others overlook?

THE MARRIAGE PORTAIT

Maggie O'Farrell

Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father to accept on her behalf.

Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso Is he the playful sophisticate her appears before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

MOONLITE Garry

George Scott was born into a privileged life in famine-wracked Ireland His family lost its fortune and fled to New Zealand There, Scott joins the local militia and after recovering from gunshot wounds, sails to Australia One night he dons a mask in a small country town, arms himself with a gun and, dubbing himself Captain Moonlite, brazenly robs a bank before staging one of the country's most audacious jailbreaks After falling in love with fellow prisoner James Nesbitt, a boyish petty criminal desperately searching for a father figure, Scott finds himself unable to shrug off his criminal past Pursued and harassed by the police, he stages a dramatic siege and prepares for a final showdown with the law - and a macabre executioner without a nose. Told at a cracking pace, and based on many of the extensive letters Scott wrote from his death cell, Moonlite is set amid the violent and sexually-repressed era of Australia in the second half of the 19th century.

THE NIGHTINGALE Kristin Hannah

The stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France. A heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.

THE PAPER PALACE

Miranda Cowley Heller

Before anyone else is awake, on a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the glorious fresh water pond below 'The Paper Palace' - the gently decaying summer camp in the back woods of Cape Cod where her family has spent every summer for generations. As she passes the house, Elle glances through the screen porch at the uncleared table from a dinner party the previous evening; empty wine glasses, candle wax on the table cloth, echoes of laughter of family and friends. Then she dives beneath the surface of the freezing water to the shocking memory of the sudden passionate encounter she had the night before, up against the wall outside the house, as her husband and mother chatted to the dinner guests inside.

THE PARIS APARTMENT

Lucy Foley

In a beautiful old apartment block, deep in the backstreets of Paris, secrets are stirring behind every resident’s door. The lonely wife; The party animal; The curtain-twitcher; The secret lover; The watchful caretaker; The unwanted guest One resident is missing. Only the killer holds the key to the mystery…

THE PROMISE

Damon Galgut

The Promise is an expansive family novel that explores the interconnected relationships between members of one family through the sequential lens of multiple funerals. Death assumes here both a closing but also an opening into lives lived. It is an unusual narrative style that balances Faulknerian exuberance with Nabokovian precision, pushes boundaries, and is a testament to the flourishing of the novel in the 21st century. In The Promise, Damon Galgut makes a strong, unambiguous commentary on the history of South Africa and of humanity itself that can best be summed up in the question: does true justice exist in this world?

Imagine marrying someone you've never met

In 1939, Giacinta sets sail from Italy to Australia. Decades later, a granddaughter discovers the true story of her family... A stunningly crafted novel of family, secrets and facing adversity

REBECCA

Daphne Du Maurier

On a trip to the South of France, the shy heroine of Rebecca falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Although his proposal comes as a surprise, she happily agrees to marry him. But as they arrive at her husband's Cornish estate, Manderley, a change comes over Maxim, and the young bride is filled with dread. Friendless in the isolated mansion, she realises that she barely knows him. In every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca, and the new Mrs de Winter walks in her shadow.

ROSE

Suzanne Falkiner

In 1814, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, nineteen-year-old Rose Pinon married handsome naval officer Louis de Freycinet, fifteen years her senior. Three years later, unable to bear parting from her husband, she dressed in men's clothing and slipped secretly aboard his ship the day before it sailed on a voyage of scientific discovery to the South Seas. Living for three years as the sole female among 120 men, Rose de Freycinet defied not only bourgeois society's expectations of a woman in 1817, but also a strict prohibition against women sailing on French naval ships. Whether dancing at governors' balls in distant colonies, or evading pirates and meeting armed Indigenous warriors on remote Australian shores, or surviving shipwreck in the wintry Falkland Islands, Rose used her quick pen to record her daily experiences, becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the world and leave a record of her journey.

SCRUBLANDS

Chris Hammer

Set in a fictional Riverina town at the height of a devastating drought, Scrublands is one of the most powerful, compelling and original crime novels to be written in Australia. In an isolated country town brought to its knees by endless drought, a charismatic and dedicated young priest calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead himself. A compulsive thriller that will haunt you long after you have turned the final page.

THE SECRET CHORD

Geraldine Brooks

1000 BC. The Second Iron Age. The time of King David. Anointed as the chosen one when just a young shepherd boy, David will rise to be king, grasping the throne and establishing his empire. But his journey is a tumultuous one and the consequences of his choices will resound for generations.

Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene, and their relationship intensifies and complicates. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland's changing character and the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope.

SHUGGIE BAIN

Douglas Stuart

It is 1981 Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive Agnes Bain has always expected more from life She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest Shuggie is different Fastidious and fussy, he shares his mother’s sense of snobbish propriety. The miners' children pick on him and adults condemn him as no’ right. But Shuggie believes that if he tries his hardest, he can be normal like the other boys and help his mother escape this hopeless place

SMALL GREAT THINGS

Jodi Picoult

When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father

What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.

SNAKE ISLAND Ben Hobson

Vernon and Penelope Moore never want to see their son Caleb again Not after he hit his wife and ended up in gaol But when Vernon hears that Caleb is being regularly visited and savagely bashed by a local criminal as the police stand by, he realises he has to act. What has his life been as a father if he turns his back on his son in his hour of desperate need? The father of Caleb's attacker is head of a violent crime family. The town lives in fear of him but Vernon is determined to fix things in a civilised way, father to father If he shows respect, he reasons, it will be reciprocated. But how wrong he is.

THE SUMMER WE RAN AWAY Jenny Oliver

In Cedar Road, everyone is preparing for Lexi’s ‘White Hot’ summer party. For one night, parking squabbles and petitions are put aside as neighbours sip Prosecco under the fairy lights and gather by the hot tub to marvel at Lexi’s effortlessly glamorous life with Hot Hamish For Julia, it’s a chance to coax husband Charlie out of his potting shed and into a shirt so they can have a welcome break from the hellish house renovation they’ve been wrestling with And it’s a chance for Julia to pretend – just for a night – that her life is as perfect as Lexi’s. But when, during the party, one of Julia’s WhatsApp messages falls into the wrong hands and reveals her most intimate thoughts, things reach boiling point And when all the neighbours know exactly what you’re thinking, there’s only one thing to do Run away It’s going to be a summer Julia will never forget

TAKING TOM MURRAY HOME Tim Slee

Bankrupt dairy farmer Tom Murray decides he'd rather sell off his herd and burn down his own house than hand them over to the bank But something goes tragically wrong, and Tom dies in the blaze His wife, Dawn, doesn't want him to have died for nothing and decides to hold a funeral procession for Tom as a protest, driving 350km from Yardley in country Victoria to bury him in Melbourne where he was born To make a bigger impact she agrees with some neighbours to put his coffin on a horse and cart and take it slow - real slow But on the night of their departure, someone burns down the local bank And as the motley funeral procession passes through Victoria, there are more mysterious arson attacks. Dawn has five days to get to Melbourne before the police impound the coffin and force her to bury her husband. Five days, five more towns, and a state ready to explode in flames...

THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ

Heather Morris

Lale Sokolov is well dressed, a charmer, a ladies’ man. He’s also a Jew. On the first transport from Slovakia to Auschwitz in 1942, Lale immediately stands out to his fellow prisoners. In the camp, he is looked up to, looked out for and put to work in the privileged position of tattooist to mark his fellow prisoners , forever. One of them is a young woman who steals his heart at first glance. This true story, full of beauty and hope, is based on years of interviews with Lale - it is heart wrenching, illuminating and unforgettable.

THERE WAS STILL LOVE

Favel Parrett

Favel Parrett's deep emotional insight and stellar literary talent shine through in this love letter to the strong women who bind families together, despite dislocation and distance. It is a tender and beautifully told story of memory, family and love. Because there is still love. No matter what.

TIPPING

Anna George

Liv Winsome, overwhelmed, working mother of three sons, wife to decent if distracted Duncan, reaches tipping point, when one of her sons is involved in an Instagram scandal. Then her husband accidentally locks her in the car. Things need to change in Liv’s world, and fast. So Liv delegates chores on the home front, challenges Duncan to tune in, and lets her boys’ conservative school know it has work to do, too. Whatever those students are currently learning about respect isn’t getting through. Reluctantly, Duncan tweaks his work/family balance and Carmichael Grammar agrees to look at itself through the lens of gender. A colourful expert arrives, with a raft of interventions to improve the school’s culture and its students’ behaviour. To everyone’s surprise, things actually start to get better. Not everyone, though, is happy about it.

TWELVE SECRETS

Robert Logan

Ben Harper's life changed for ever the day his older brother Nick was murdered by two classmates It was a crime that shocked the nation and catapulted Ben's family and their idyllic hometown, Haddley, into the spotlight. Twenty years on, Ben is one of the best investigative journalists in the country and settled back in Haddley, thanks to the support of its close-knit community But then a fresh murder case shines new light on his brother's death and throws suspicion on those closest to him. Ben is about to discover that in Haddley no one is as they seem Everyone has something to hide

WEARING PAPER DRESSES

Anne Brinsden

Meet Elise, whose urbane 1950s glamour is rudely transplanted to the pragmatic red soil of the Mallee when her husband returns to work the family farm. But you cannot uproot a plant and expect it to thrive. And so it is with Elise. Her meringues don't impress the shearers, the locals scoff at her Paris fashions, her husband works all day in the back paddock, and the drought kills everything but the geraniums she despises. As their mother withdraws more and more into herself, her spirited, tearaway daughters, Marjorie and Ruby, wild as weeds, are left to raise themselves as best they can. Until tragedy strikes, and Marjorie flees to the city determined to leave her family behind. And there she stays, leading a very different life, until the boy she loves draws her back to the land she can't forget.

WE WERE NEVER HERE Andrea Bartz

Your best friend killed a man. Now, she needs your help. But can you really trust her motives? Her Last Holiday meets Thelma and Louise Emily is on holiday with her best friend, Kristen, in the stunning mountains of Chile It's heaven on earth, until, on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find it covered in blood Kristen claims a backpacker attacked her. She shouted, but no-one heard. She struggled, but he was too strong. She had no option but to kill him. With no evidence of the assault, Emily must help her hide the body But, as the walls close in on their cover-up, Emily asks herself- can she really trust her closest friend?

THE WEEKEND Charlotte Wood

Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three Can they survive together without her? They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur, Wendy, an acclaimed public intellectual, and Adele, a renowned actress now mostly out of work Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for Christmas at Sylvie's old beach house - not for festivities, but to clean the place out before it is sold. Without Sylvie to maintain the group's delicate equilibrium, frustrations build and painful memories press in. Fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface - and threatens to sweep away their friendship for good

WHEN ALL IS SAID & DONE

Neale Daniher

Neale Daniher sat down to pen a letter to the grandchildren he’ll never get to know, and then he kept on writing. In 2013, the AFL legend was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease – a cruel and incurable disease. He knew he had a choice. He could spend his remaining time on earth focused on himself, or he could seize the opportunity to make a better future for others. From the hard-won wisdom of life on the land and the love of his family, to the triumphs and gutting lows of elite football, Neale has learnt to make the most of the cards he’s been dealt – to always live with purpose and to appreciate what he has.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING

Delia Owens

For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new lifeuntil the unthinkable happens.

WHERE'D YOU GO BERNADETTE?

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To Elgie Branch, a Microsoft wunderkind, she's his hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled wife. To fellow mothers at the school gate, she's a menace. To design experts, she's a revolutionary architect. And to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, quite simply, mum. Then Bernadette disappears. And Bee must take a trip to the end of the earth to find her.

THE WHITE GIRL

Tony Birch

Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. Raising her granddaughter Sissy on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing Aboriginal children from their communities. When the menacing Sergeant Lowe arrives in town, determined to fully enforce the law, any freedom that Odette and Sissy enjoy comes under grave threat. Odette must make an impossible choice to protect her family.

THE WIFE & THE WIDOW

Christian White

The Wife and the Widow is a mystery/thriller told from two perspectives: Kate, a widow whose grief is compounded by what she learns about her dead husband’s secret life; and Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside down when she’s forced to confront the evidence that her husband is a murderer. But nothing on this island is quite as it seems, and only when these women come together can they discover the whole story about the men in their lives.

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

A.J. Finn

Anna Fox lives alone, a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times and spying on her neighbors Then the Russells move into the house across the way; a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one and nothing is what it seems

THE YIELD

Tara June Winch

Knowing that he will soon die, Albert 'Poppy' Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind August Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for ten years when she learns of her grandfather's death She returns home for his burial, wracked with grief and burdened with all she tried to leave behind Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company Determined to make amends she endeavours to save their land - a quest that leads her to the voice of her grandfather and into the past, the stories of her people, the secrets of the river

THE YOUNGER WIFE Sally Hepworth

The moment she laid eyes on Heather Wisher, Tully knew this woman was going to destroy their lives. Tully and Rachel are murderous when they discover their father has a new girlfriend. The fact that Heather is half his age isn't even the most shocking part. Stephen is still married to their mother, who is in a care facility with end-stage Alzheimer's disease. Heather knows she has an uphill battle to win Tully and Rachel over, while carrying the burden of the secrets of her past. But, as it turns out, they are all hiding something. The announcement of Stephen and Heather's engagement threatens to set off a family implosion, with old wounds and dark secrets finally being forced to the surface. A garage full of stolen goods. An old hot-water bottle, stuffed with cash. A blood-soaked wedding. And that's only the beginning.

Suggestions

We are happy to take suggestions for books to be included in the book club reading list. Suggestions can be emailed to the library; library@griffith.nsw.gov.au or with the staff at the customer service desk.

Happy Reading

Program Details

Program runs for 10 months, from February to November.

All book club members MUST be members of the library. Book clubs are entitled to one set of books per month (10 per year). Each set contains 12 books and a folder of discussion questions. Clubs will select their own books each month. Books will be made available for collection from the 1st of each month (eg. 1st of February) Books are on loan for 6 weeks. Books cannot be renewed. If you haven’t finished reading please check the catalogue and request a copy from the general collection. Titles cannot be reserved. A maximum of two titles will be issued to a book club at any given time. These restrictions ensure that as many book clubs as possible can make use of this service. Please help us to keep this service operating successfully by collecting and returning the books in a timely manner. Book clubs must return the complete set of 12 books and folder. Incomplete sets or individual titles will not be accepted by the library.

Membership Requirements

All book club members must be a member of the Western Riverina Library service

Lost or Damaged Books

Lost or damaged books will incur a replacement fee of $25 per item. This fee must be paid before the next set of books can be borrowed

Book Club FAQs

Who can borrow from the book club collection?

Book clubs must be registered with the Griffith City Library to borrow book club sets. How much does it cost?

The registration fee is $420 per club. Book Clubs receive one set of books per month from February to November (10 book sets in total) There are 12 books and discussion questions in each set. Any lost or damaged items will incur a replacement fee of $25 per item.

How do we select a book from the collection?

Available titles will be displayed in the dedicated space at Griffith City Library. From the 1st of each month, book clubs may collect their new tub for that month Clubs can have a maximum of two sets on loan at any given time. If your club already has two sets on loan you will not be able to borrow another set until one is returned Titles are subject to availability and we cannot guarantee that you will always receive your preferences.

Can we go on a waiting list to borrow a book club set?

Book club sets cannot be reserved. How long can my group borrow a book club set?

The loan period is 6 weeks. Prompt collection and returning of books ensures that service runs successfully for all

Can we borrow more than one set at a time?

Book clubs may have a maximum of two sets on loan at any given time. If your club already has two sets on loan you will not be able to borrow another set until one is returned.

How do we return a book club set?

The tub and all of its contents must be returned as a complete set to Griffith City Library during opening hours. Each book is numbered. In the back of the discussion folder is a list for you to record which member has which book This helps to identify what books haven’t been returned and who they were on loan to.

I’m not in a Book Club. Can you help me to join one?

Please see the Book Club Noticeboard on our website for current book club vacancies or individuals looking for a club If there is nothing suitable, you may wish to start your own book club. Contact Griffith City Library for an application form to add your details to this list.