RRL recommends these titles to readers of youth fiction ## New Nick HORNBY, ABOUT A BOY (278 pages) - Will is 36, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bit nerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age. ## Edith WHARTON, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (305 pages) - In the highest circle of New York social life during the 1870's, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, prepares to marry the docile May Welland. Before their engagement is announced, he meets May's cousin, the mysterious, nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned to New York after a long absence. Paul COELHO, THE ALCHEMIST (192 pages) - The Alchemist is an allegorical novel first published in 1988. It follows Santiago, a young boy Spanish shepherd, on a journey to fulfill his Personal Legend. It has been hailed as a modern classic. The plot is inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' short story: Tale of two dreamers. Anna FUNDER, ALL THAT I AM (370 pages) – When Hitler comes to power in 1933, a tightknit group of friends and lovers become hunted outlaws overnight. United in their resistance to the madness and tyranny of Nazism, they must flee the country to London. Anthony DOERR, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE (530 pages) - Set during World War II Europe, this novel is sobering without being sentimental. The tension builds as the alternating, parallel stories of Werner and Marie-Laure unfold, and their paths cross. Anne TYLER, THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE (352 pages) - Marrying quickly during World War II after falling in love at first sight, a mismatched couple discovers that their different personalities and approaches to life are taking a toll on their relationship and their family. ## Freda Marnie NICHOLLS, THE AMAZING MRS LIVESEY (303 pages) - The truly remarkable life of the notorious Ethel Livesey, a serial fraudster and confidence trickster who became a media sensation after she ran out on her society wedding in 1945 and was later arrested for obtained goods by false pretences.
Daisy GOODWIN, THE AMERICAN HEIRESS (468 pages) - Presents the story of vivacious Cora Cash, whose early twentieth-century marriage to England's most eligible duke is overshadowed by his secretive nature and the traps and betrayals of London's social scene. ## Chimamanda Ngozi ADICHIE, AMERICANAH (477 pages) - A story of love and race centred around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, it is a richly told story set in today’s globalized world. Garth STEIN, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN (321 pages) - Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television and by listening closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. On the night before his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through, hoping, in his next life, to return as a human. Dai SIJIE, BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS (172 pages)Two hapless city boys are exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China's infamous Cultural Revolution. There they meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. ## Anita HEISS, BARBED WIRE AND CHERRY BLOSSOM (264 pages) – Hiroshi manages to escape from Cowra prison camp to Erambie Station, an Aboriginal mission. Banjo Williams offers Hiroshi refuge. Mary, Banjo’s daughter, is intrigued by the softly spoken stranger, and charged with his care. Love blossoms between Mary and Hiroshi, and they each dream of a future together. But how long can Hiroshi be hidden safely and their bond kept a secret? Laline PAULL, THE BEES (344 pages) - A member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive, Flora 717, due to her courage and strength, finds her way into the Queen's inner sanctum where she discovers secrets about the hive that cause her to challenge authority and perform unthinkable acts. Lauren OLIVER, BEFORE I FALL (344 pages) - After she dies in a car crash, teenager Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself. S. J. WATSON, BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP (366 pages) - Each day, Christine wakes knowing nothing of her life. Each night, her mind erases the day. But before she goes to sleep, she will recover fragments from her past, flashbacks to the accident that damaged her, and then— mercifully—she will forget. Ann PATCHETT, BEL CANTO (352 pages) - Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honour of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage.
## Ta-Nehisi COATES, BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME (152 pages) - In a series of essays, written as a letter to his son, Coates confronts the notion of race in America and how it has shaped American history, many times at the cost of black bodies and lives. James ELLROY, THE BLACK DAHLIA (383 pages) - The murder of a beautiful young woman in 1947 Los Angeles sparks a great investigation in which Bucky Bleichert, Lee Blanchard, L.A.P.D. Warrants Squad cops, ex-boxers, friends, and adversaries become obsessed by the case. ## A. S. PATRIC, BLACK ROCK WHITE CITY (248 pages) - During a hot Melbourne summer Jovan’s cleaning work at a bayside hospital is disrupted by acts of graffiti and violence becoming increasingly malevolent. For Jovan the mysterious words that must be cleaned away dislodge the poetry of the past. He and his wife Suzana were forced to flee Sarajevo and the death of their children. Colm TOIBIN, BLACKWATER LIGHTSHIP (272 pages) – With AIDS about to claim a well-loved young man, three generations of his family are reunited at his bedside in Ireland, in a novel that explores the nature of love and the complex interrelationships among family members. Anita AMIRREZVANI, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS (376 pages) - After her father dies without leaving her with a dowry, a seventeenth-century Persian teen becomes a servant to her wealthy rug designer uncle in the court of Shah Abbas the Great, where her weaving talents prove both a blessing and curse. ## Nam LE, THE BOAT (315 pages) - Ranging from the Colombian slums to New York City, from the streets of Tehran to a boat in the South China Sea, a collection of short fiction explores the complexities of human relationships and the challenges we face. Michelle LOVRIC, THE BOOK OF HUMAN SKIN (500 pages) - 1784, Venice. Miniguillo Fasan claws his way out of his mother’s womb. The magnificent Palazzo Espagnol, built on New World drugs and silver, has an heir. Twelve years later Minguillo uncovers a threat to his inheritance: a sister. His jealousy will condemn her to a series of fates as a cripple, a madwoman and a nun. Jonathan TROPPER, THE BOOK OF JOE (338 pages) - a young writer named Joe Goffman, whose sizzling first novel savaged everyone in his Connecticut hometown, then became a huge hit movie. Of course, Joe never planned on going home again. Until now. Tess EVANS, BOOK OF LOST THREADS (350 pages) – Tender, funny and memorable, Book of Lost Threads is a story about love and loss, parents and children, hope, faith and the value of simple kindness. Markus ZUSAK, THE BOOK THIEF (584 pages) - It is 1939. Nazi-Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier and will become busier still. Liesel and her younger brother are being taken by their mother to live with a foster family outside Munich. John BOYNE, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS (216 pages) - A story of innocence existing within the most terrible evil, this is the fictional tale of two young boys caught up in events entirely beyond their control.
Tim WINTON, BREATH (264 pages) - Falling under the spell of an enigmatic extreme-sports surfer, a thrill-seeking pair of western Australian adolescents is initiated into a world of high-stakes adventures and dangerous boundary testing. Monica ALI, BRICK LANE (492 pages) - Monica Ali's gorgeous first novel is the deeply moving story of one woman, Nazneen, born in a Bangladeshi village and transported to London at age eighteen to enter into an arranged marriage. Gradually she is transformed by her experience, and begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. Evelyn WAUGH, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED (326 pages) - Charles Ryder, a lonely student at Oxford, is captivated by the outrageous and decadent Sebastian Flyte. Invited to Brideshead, Sebastian's magnificent family home, Charles welcomes the attentions of its eccentric, aristocratic inhabitants, gradually becoming infatuated with them and the life of privilege they inhabit. Hannah KENT, BURIAL RITES (352 pages) - Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. SOUAD, BURNED ALIVE (210 pages) - A memoir by a young Jordanian woman who was the victim of an "honour crime" describes how she was nearly killed by her own family, her struggle to survive critical burns after being set on fire, and her determination to build a new life for herself. Michael McGIRR, BYPASS (307 pages) - In a work of creative non-fiction which is a tantalising mixture of memoir, travel story, social history, road story and romance, he reveals his affectionate obsession with the Hume Highway and the stories it carries with it, whilst he also details his own personal and spiritual journey. Geraldine BROOKS, CALEB’S CROSSING (306 pages) - Growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans, Bethia Mayfield yearns for an education that is closed to her due to her gender. As soon as she can, she slips away to explore the island's glistening beaches and observes its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. J. K. ROWLING, THE CASUAL VACANCY (512 pages) – When Barry Fairborther dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is not what it first seems, and the empty seat left by Barry on the town’s council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Rowling’s first novel for adults is blackly comic, thoughtprovoking and constantly surprising. P. D. JAMES, THE CHILDREN OF MEN (241 pages) - The year is 2021. The country is under the absolute rule of the Warden. Then by chance, Theo Faron meets a young woman who seeks to challenge the power of the Warden's regime. Edwidge DANTICAT, CLAIRE OF THE SEA LIGHT (256 pages) - The interconnected secrets of a coastal Haitian town are revealed when one little girl, the daughter of a fisherman, goes missing.
Stella GIBBONS, COLD COMFORT FARM (233 pages) - Flora Poste, a recently orphaned socialite, moves in with her country relatives, the gloomy Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm, and becomes enmeshed in a web of violent emotions, despair, and scheming, until Flora manages to set things right. A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas, it is one of the best-loved comic novels of all time. Olive Ann BURNS, COLD SASSY TREE (391 pages) - Cold Sassy Tree is a 1984 novel by Olive Ann Burns. Set in a fictional Georgia town called Cold Sassy during 1905-1906, it follows the life of young Will Tweedy, and explores themes such as religion, death, and social taboos. It is light, funny and tender. Gabrielle ZEVIN, THE COLLECTED WORKS OF A.J. FIKRY (243 pages) - When his most prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, is stolen, bookstore owner A. J. Fikry begins isolating himself from his friends, family and associates before receiving a mysterious package that compels him to remake his life. Emily Gray TEDROWE, COMMUTERS (378 pages) - At seventy-eight, Winnie Easton has finally found love again with Jerry Trevis, a wealthy Chicago businessman. But their decision to buy one of the town's biggest houses ignites anger and scepticism—as children and grandchildren take drastic actions to secure their own futures and endangered inheritances. ## Anthony MARRA, A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA (405 pages) Set in rural Chechnya during the region's war with Russia. An eight-year-old girl witnesses her father's abduction by Russian soldiers. Swearing to protect the girl, local doctor Akhmed brings her to a crumbling hospital, run by a hardened but dedicated surgeon, for safety. Mark HADDON, THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (268 pages) - Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. Christopher MORGAN, CURRAWALLI STREET (296 pages) - With simplicity and great beauty, Currawalli Street reveals the echoes between past and present through the story of one ordinary street and its families, from the pre-war innocence of early 1914 to the painful and grim consequences of the Vietnam War. William LANDY, DEFENDING JACOB (488 pages) - Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next. His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. Ruth REICHL, DELICIOUS! (374 pages) - Working as a public relations hotline consultant for a once-prestigious culinary magazine, Billie Breslin unexpectedly enters a world of New York restaurateurs and artisanal purveyors while reading World War II letters exchanged between a plucky twelve-year-old and the legendary chef James Beard.
## Bill CLEGG, DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY (293 pages) - Portrait of a community in the aftermath of a tragedy. June Reid, the broken woman at the epicentre of the novel, is struggling with a loss so profound that she is unable to see beyond her grief, unaware that it has touched many people. Clegg tells their stories with heartbreaking sensitivity and insight.
THE DIG TREE
(372 pages) - Describes the mid-nineteenth-century Burke and Wells expedition in which eighteen amateur explorers took on the task of charting a course across the vast unmapped interior of Australia from Melbourne to the northern coast, recounting the tragic, nightmarish results of that odyssey. ## Sarah MURGATROYD,
Anne TYLER, DIGGING TO AMERICA (330 pages) - A powerful novel of America's melting pot. Brought together by international adoptions, two family's lives intertwine and illuminate America's cultural spectrum and all its universalities of human nature Herman KOCH, THE DINNER (304 pages) - A summer's evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness. But the empty words hide a terrible conflict and, with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened... Tim WINTON, DIRT MUSIC (461 pages) - Georgie Jutland is a mess. At forty, with her career in ruins, she finds herself stranded in White Point with a fisherman she doesn't love and two kids whose dead mother she can never replace. J.M. COETZEE, DISGRACE (224 pages) – The Booker Prize winner in 1999, Disgrace is the story of a South African professor of English descent who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his cherished daughter. Jean-Dominique BAUBY, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (139 pages) – The diary of Jean-Dominique Bauby who, with his left eyelid (the only surviving muscle after a massive stroke) dictated a remarkable book about his experiences locked inside his body. Alice HOFFMAN, THE DOVEKEEPERS (504 pages) - A tale inspired by the tragic firstcentury massacre of hundreds of Jewish people at Masada presents the stories of a hated daughter, a baker's wife, a girl disguised as a warrior, and a medicine woman who keep doves and secrets while Roman soldiers draw near. Barack OBAMA, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER (442 pages) - In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. Rosalie HAM, THE DRESSMAKER (296 pages) - Peopled with exotic characters, this is a story of love, hate and haute couture, set in a country town that's disconcerting to visit but a bitingly comedic and heart-breaking place to live. Chris STEWART, DRIVING OVER LEMONS : AN OPTIMIST IN ANDALUCIA (256 p.) – A warm, funny account of a British family's attempt to make a home in southern Spain. Follows the first drummer for the rock band Genesis as he heads for Andalucía with his wife and kids.
## Jane HARPER, THE DRY (342 pages) - Luke Hadler turns a gun on his wife and child, then himself. The farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily. When Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk returns to Kiewarra for the funerals, he is loath to confront the people who rejected him twenty years earlier. But when his investigative skills are called on, the facts of the Hadler case start to make him doubt this murder-suicide charge. ## Rainbow ROWELL, ELEANOR & PARK (324 pages) - Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. Muriel BARBERY, THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG (320 pages) - The book follows events in the life of a concierge, Renée Michel, whose deliberately concealed intelligence is uncovered by an unstable but intellectually precocious girl named Paloma. Paloma and Renee hide their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. But everything changes when a new tenant arrives, a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu. Will SCHWALBE, THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB (336 pages) - This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Murray BAIL, EUCALYPTUS (254 pages) - A fable-like novel from prize-winning Australian writer Bail poses an age-old question: How do you win a woman's heart? Lily KING, EUPHORIA (261 pages) - Frustrated by his research efforts and depressed over the death of his brothers, Andre Banson runs into two fellow anthropologists, a married couple, in 1930s New Guinea and begins a tumultuous relationship with them. ## Celeste NG, EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU (297 pages) - Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfil the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. Ian RANKIN, EXIT MUSIC (448 pages) - (Inspector Rebus novel) It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. Sofie LAGUNA, THE
EYE OF THE SHEEP (308 pages) Meet Jimmy Flick. He's not like
other kids. He finds a lot of the adult world impossible to understand - especially why his Dad gets so angry with him. Toni JORDON, FALL GIRL (232 pages) – Della Gilmore has been conning people since she was a child. Now she is attempting to pull off the biggest coup of her career. Thomas HARDY, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (433 pages) - After an unfortunate marriage to Sergeant Troy and an affair with Farmer Boldwood, Bathsheba Everdene finally becomes the wife of the man who has always loved her.
## Lauren Groff, FATES AND FURIES (389 pages) - Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years. John GREEN, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (322 pages) - Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. Liam PIEPER, THE FEEL GOOD HIT OF THE YEAR (253 pages) - a memoir about family, addiction and learning how to live with yourself, from a sharp and original new Australian voice. Sularai GENTILL, A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN (346 pages) – In Australia’s 1930s, the Sinclair name is respectable and influential, yet the youngest son Rowland – an artist – has a talent for scandal. Mounting political tensions fuelled by the Great Depression take Australia to the brink of revolution. Rowland is indifferent to the politics, until a brutal murder exposes an extraordinary and treasonous conspiracy. Sarah WATERS, FINGERSMITH (582 pages) - Growing up as a foster child among a family of thieves, orphan Sue Trinder hopes to pay back that kindness by playing a key role in a swindle scheme devised by their leader who is planning to con a fortune out of the naive Maud Lilly. Maxine BENEBA-CLARKE, FOREIGN SOIL (265 pages) - In Melbourne's Western Suburbs, in a dilapidated block of flats overhanging the rattling Footscray train-lines, a young black mother is working on a collection of stories. Kate MORTON, THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN (554 pages) - On the night of her twentyfirst birthday, Nell O'Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family. A. B. FACEY, A FORTUNATE LIFE (422 pages) - This is the extraordinary life of an ordinary man. It is the story of Albert Facey, who lived with simple honesty, compassion and courage. Liz BYRSKI, GANG OF FOUR (399 pages) - Gang of Four is a very different coming-of-age story in that the protagonists are all in their fifties. Author Liz Byrski does a superb job of crafting four very different stories which overlap, diverge and merge again throughout the book. M. R. CAREY, THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (460 pages) - Not every gift is a blessing. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointed at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh. Melanie is a very special girl.
Jeanette WALLS, THE GLASS CASTLE (341 pages) – A successful journalist, Jeanette Walls, relates the horrific childhood she experienced being raised by alcoholic, manipulative, and selfish parents. What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Arundhati ROY, THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS (336 pages) - Tells the story of one very fractured family from the southernmost tip of India. Here is an unhappy family unhappy in its own way, and through flashbacks and flashforwards The God of Small Things unfolds the secrets of these characters' unhappiness. ## Joan LONDON, THE GOLDEN AGE (242 pages) - It is 1954 and thirteen-year-old Frank Gold, refugee from wartime Hungary, is learning to walk again after contracting polio in Australia. At the Golden Age Children's Polio Convalescent Hospital in Perth, he sees Elsa, a fellow-patient, and they form a forbidden, passionate bond. Gillian FLYNN, GONE GIRL (463 pages) - When a woman goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage, while her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred. ## Osamah SAMI, GOOD MUSLIM BOY (257 pages) - Meet Osamah Sami: a schemer, a dreamer and a madcap antihero of spectacular proportions whose terrible life choices keep leading to cataclysmic consequences … despite his best laid plans to be a Good Muslim Boy. Charles DICKENS, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (575 pages) - On Christmas Eve, young Pip, an orphan being raised by his sister and her husband, encounters a convict in the village churchyard. The man, who has escaped from a prison ship, scares Pip into stealing him some food and a file to grind away his leg shackle. This incident is crucial: firstly, it gives Pip, who must steal the goods from his sister's house, his first taste of true guilt, and secondly, Pip's kindness warms the convict's heart. The convict, however, waits many years to truly show his gratitude. F. Scott FITZGERALD, THE GREAT GATSBY (169 pages) - Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Set in 1920’s America. Mary Ann SHAFFER and Annie BARROWS,
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND
POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY (290 pages)- January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. Helen MACDONALD, H IS FOR HAWK (320 pages) - Recounts how the author, an experienced falconer grieving the sudden death of her father, endeavored to train for the first time a dangerous goshawk predator as part of her personal recovery.
Anthony QUINN, HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE (349 pages) – Summer of 1911. The streets of London ring with cheers for a new king’s coronation and the cries of increasingly violent suffragette protests. Connie Callaway, fired up by the possibilities of independence, wants more than the conventional comforts of marriage. Will Maitland, the rising star of county cricket, is a man of traditional opinions. Buffeted and spun by choice and chance, their lives become inextricably entangled. Ahn DO, THE HAPPIEST REFUGEE (229 pages) - The laugh-out-loud, reach-for-yourhanky story of one of Australia's best-loved comedians. Samantha TIDY, THE HAPPINESS JAR (334 pages) - Rachel Hudson succumbs to cystic fibrosis at age twenty-seven, intentionally leaving behind secrets that push each of her remaining family to question what it is they want from life, and from each other. Edmund de WAAL, THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES (264 pages) - Wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited the ‘netsuke’, they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined. ## Jill Alexander ESSBAUM, HAUSFRAU (324 pages) - Anna Benz, an American in her late thirties, lives with her Swiss husband, Bruno—a banker—and their three young children in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zürich. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences. Sue PIETERS-HAWKE, HAZEL : MY MOTHER’S STORY (429 pages) - Candid, revealing and fascinating this biography explores Hazel Hawke's life as she navigated challenges and profound social changes, and celebrates her value as a mother, wife, role model and tireless worker for the rights and welfare of others. Sam and Jenny BAILEY, HEAD OVER HEELS (256 pages) – At the age of 19, a young farmer, Sam Bailey, miscalculated a bend in the road, overturned his ute and became a quadriplegic. After months of struggle, he learned how to resume his life as a farmer, running a sheep and cattle property in northwest New South Wales. Kathryn STOCKETT, THE HELP (464 pages) – Together, three seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town... Jill STARK, HIGH SOBRIETY (307 pages) - Booze had dominated Jill Stark’s social life ever since she had her first sip of beer, at 13. In the shadow of her 35th year, Jill made a decision: she would give up alcohol. But what would it mean to stop drinking in a world awash with booze? Peter CAREY, HIS ILLEGAL SELF (270 pages) - His Illegal Self is the story of Che. Raised in isolated privilege by his New York grandmother, he is the precocious son of radical student activists at Harvard in the late sixties. This is an achingly beautiful story of the love between a young woman and a little boy.
Niall WILLIAMS, HISTORY OF THE RAIN (386 pages) - Ruthie Swain, the bedridden daughter of a dead poet, tries to find her father through stories -- and through generations of family history in County Clare. Bernhard SCHLINK, HOMECOMING (272 pages) - When young, fatherless Peter Debauer discovers an incomplete story in a volume of fiction, he becomes obsessed with the tale of a soldier, presumed dead, who returns home after the war. Jamie FORD, HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET (366 pages) – Henry is a Chinese American growing up in Seattle during World War II. Henry struggles with his identity, his stubborn father, and when his best friend, a Japanese American girl, is sent to an internment camp he has to decide between love and loyalty. Alain de BOTTON, HOW PROUST CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE (215 pages) Drawing from Proust's letters, essays, and fiction, de Botton transforms Proust's life and work into a no-nonsense guide to life. Jaclyn MORIARTY, I HAVE A BED MADE OF BUTTERMILK PANCAKES (424 pages) – This is a carefully and cleverly built and extraordinary book of great charm and originality… [the] narrative is studded with wry and lovely observations on life. It is completely adorable and whimsical whilst still feeling very reflective of everyday life. It is as if Moriarty has filtered ordinary events through a romantic, magical lense. Maya ANGELOU, I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS (309 pages) – In this first volume of her autobiography, Maya evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American South of the 1930s. Erin Lindsay McCABE, I SHALL BE NEAR TO YOU (320 pages) - An extraordinary novel about a strong-willed woman who disguises herself as a man in order to fight beside her husband in the Civil War, inspired by a real female soldier's letters home Niccolao AMMANITI, I’M NOT SCARED (215 pages) - When Michele Amitrano stumbles onto a boy held prisoner in a hole deep in the Italian countryside, he begins a journey that will lead him to a series of startling discoveries. I'm Not Scared is a powerful tale of how one boy finds the courage to overcome his fear, risk his life, and make wrenchingly difficult moral choices. Kate GRENVILLE, THE IDEA OF PERFECTION (401 pages) - The Idea of Perfection is a romance between two people who have given up love. Set in rural New South Wales, Douglas Cheeseman and Harley Savage first clash over the conservation of the old bridge, but eventually a closer relationship develops. David MALOUF, AN IMAGINARY LIFE (153 pages) – The Roman poet Ovid, in exile, tells the story of his encounter with a wild boy, brought up among wolves in the snow. Rebecca SKLOOT, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS (310 pages) Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells – taken without her knowledge – become one of the most important tools in modern medicine.
Hannah ROTHSCHILD, THE IMPROBABILITY OF LOVE (416 pages) – Annie leaves a junk store with a painting. She prepares an elaborate dinner for her boyfriend, only to be stood up, now the gift is gathering dust on her mantelpiece. But every painting has a story – and if it could speak, what would it tell us? Truman CAPOTE, IN COLD BLOOD (343 pages) – In Cold Blood weaves a complicated psychological story of two parolees who together commit a mass murder of a family in Kansas, an act they were not capable of individually. Capote's book also details the lives of the victims and the effect the crime had on the community where they lived. Annie HAUXWELL, IN HER BLOOD (320 pages) – When investigator Catherine Berlin gets an anonymous tip-off about a local loan shark, the case seems straightforward – until her informant is found floating in the Limehouse Basin. Fiona McGREGOR, INDELIBLE INK (452 pages) - Marie King is fifty-nine, recently divorced, and has lived a rather conventional life on Sydney’s affluent north shore. Now her three children have moved out, the family home is to be sold. On a drunken whim, Marie gets a tattoo — an act that gives way to an unexpected friendship with her tattoo artist, Rhys.
Isabel ALLENDE, INES OF MY SOUL (336 pages)- This magisterial work of historical fiction recounts the astonishing life of Ines Suarez, a daring Spanish conquistadora who toiled to build the nation of Chile--and whose vital role has too often been neglected by history. Ayaan Hirsi ALI, INFIDEL (384 pages) – Ayaan Hirsi Ali captured the world’s attention with Infidel, her coming-of-age memoir, which spent thirty-one weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Her memoir shows the development of beliefs, iron will, and extraordinary determination to fight injustice of this elegant, distinguished and sometimes reviled political superstar and champion of free speech. Francesca SEGAL, THE INNOCENTS (282 pages) - Adam must choose between duty and passion when, after becoming engaged to Rachel, his girlfriend of twelve years, he finds himself powerfully drawn to her reckless and beautiful cousin, Ellie, who represents everything that he has always tried to avoid, but now finds himself longing for. Claire TOMALIN, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (283 pages) - A portrait of nineteenth-century actress Ellen Ternan, the woman who was the mistress of Charles Dickens, describing her secret relationship with the author. Victoria HISLOP, THE ISLAND (469 pages) - A richly enchanting novel of lives and loves unfolding against the backdrop of the Mediterranean during World War II, The Island is an enthralling story of dreams and desires, of secrets desperately hidden, and of leprosy's touch on an unforgettable family. Charlotte BRONTE, JANE EYRE (545 pages)- A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre (1847) dazzled and shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.
Arnaldur INDRIDASON, JAR CITY (338 pages) - When a lonely old man is found dead in his Reykjavik flat, the only clues are a cryptic note left by the killer and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Craig SILVEY, JASPER JONES (320 pages) - It’s a riveting tale, set in 1960s small-town Australia, about a young, bookish adolescent who is drawn into events surrounding the grim disappearance of a local girl when the solitary Jasper Jones, a rebellious mixed-race older boy comes asking for his help.
JOE CINQUE’S CONSOLATION : A TRUE STORY OF DEATH, GRIEF AND THE LAW (328 pages) - In October 1997 a clever young law Helen GARNER,
student at ANU made a bizarre plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party at their house. Some of the dinner guests-most of them university students-had heard rumours of the plan. Nobody warned Joe Cinque. Alex MILLER, JOURNEY TO THE STONE COUNTRY (364 pages) - Betrayed by her husband, Annabelle Beck retreats from Melbourne to her old family home in tropical North Queensland where she meets Bo Rennie, one of the Jangga tribe. Intrigued by Bo's claim that he holds the key to her future, Annabelle sets out with him on a path of recovery that leads back to her childhood and into the Jangga's ancient heartland. ## Amy TAN, THE JOY LUCK CLUB (288 pages) - After being drawn together by the shadows of their past, four women start meeting every week in San Francisco to engage in hobbies they all enjoy. After one of the four members dies, her daughter takes her place to fulfill her mother's dying wish. Vanessa DIFFENBAUGH, THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS (352 pages) – A mesmerizing, moving and elegantly written debut novel, ‘The Language of Flowers’ beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past. Tracy CHEVALIER, THE LAST RUNAWAY (305 pages) - Forced to leave England and struggling with illness in the wake of a family tragedy, Quaker Honor Bright is forced to rely on strangers in the harsh landscape of 1850 Ohio and is compelled to join the Underground Railroad network to help runaway slaves escape to freedom. Kate ATKINSON, LIFE AFTER LIFE (544 pages) – Ursula Todd is born on a cold snowy night in 1910 -- twice. As she grows up during the first half of the twentieth century in Britain Ursula dies and is brought back to life again and again. With a seemingly infinite number of lives it appears as though Ursula has the ability to alter the history of the world, should she so choose. George DAWSON & Richard GLAUBMAN, LIFE IS SO GOOD (250 pages) – In this remarkable book, 103-year-old George Dawson, a slave’s grandson who learned to read at age 98, reflects on his life and offers valuable lessons in living as well as a fresh, firsthand view of America during the twentieth century. Richard Glaubman captures Dawson’s irresistible voice and view of the world, offering insights into humanity, history, hardships, and happiness.
M. L. STEDMAN, THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (352 pages) - After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock. Tom brings a young, bold and loving wife, Isabel to the isolated island. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up on shore carrying a dead man and a living baby. Laura ESQUIVEL, LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE (222 pages) - Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. Ros MORIARTY, LISTENING TO COUNTRY (232 pages) - The moving and personal story of one woman's journey into the remote and rugged Tanami Desert with the matriarchs of her husband's family. Lily BRETT, LOLA BENSKY (267 pages) - Lola Bensky is a nineteen-year-old rock journalist who irons her hair straight and asks a lot of questions. A high-school dropout, she's not sure how she got the job - but she's been sent by her Australian newspaper right to the heart of the London music scene at the most exciting time in music history: 1967. Brooke DAVIS, LOST AND FOUND (272 pages) – Follows a shared encounter between an abandoned 7-year-old, a widowed shut-in and a nursing home escapee, who embark on a road trip across Western Australia to find the child's mother. Mitchell ZUCKOFF, LOST IN SHANGRI-LA (384 pages) – The untold story of an extraordinary World War II rescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S. military personnel into the jungle-clad land of New Guinea. Nancy MITFORD, LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE (249 pages) - Set in the privileged world of the county house party and the London season, the story of coldly beautiful Polly Hampton and her aristocratic parents is a comedy of English manners between the wars. Gabriel Garcia MARQUEZ, LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA (348 pages) Florentino Ariza has never forgotten his first love. He has waited nearly a lifetime in silence since his beloved Fermina married another man. No woman can replace her in his heart. But now her husband is dead… Alice SEBOLD, THE LOVELY BONES (328 pages) - Our narrator Susie Salmon is already in heaven. Murdered by a neighbour when she was only fourteen years old, Susie tells us what it is like to be in her new place. Jhumpa LAHIRI, THE LOWLAND (339 pages) - Brothers Subhash and Udayan Mitra pursue vastly different lives--Udayan in rebellion-torn Calcutta, Subhash in a quiet corner of America--until a shattering tragedy compels Subhash to return to India, where he endeavours to heal family wounds. ## Paula BYRNE, MAD WORLD (367 pages) – An engaging and original biography of Evelyn Waugh and the family that provided him with the most significant friendships of his life and inspired his masterpiece, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.
Helen SIMONSON, MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND (388 pages) - When Major Pettigrew, a retired British army major in a small English village, embarks on an unexpected friendship with the widowed Mrs. Ali, who runs the local shop, trouble erupts to disturb the bucolic serenity of the village and of the Major’s carefully regimented life. ## Mark DOUGLAS-HOMES, A MALICE OF WAVES (289 pages) - For five years Priest's Island has guarded the secret of Max Wheeler's disappearance. Each anniversary the boy's family gathers at the scene to mourn his loss and to commission a new inquiry into the mystery. Now Cal McGill, an oceanographer with expertise in tracking bodies at sea, has taken up the quest and finds himself caught between a father hell-bent on vengeance, a family riven by tragedy and a community resentful at being accused of murder. Fredrik BACKMAN, A MAN CALLED OVE (337 pages) - A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbours, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship. ## Nathan BRESSER, MAN IN THE CORNER (299 pages) David’s was a perfectly acceptable life – successful business, happy marriage, two children. But then he involves himself in an identity-theft crime worth millions of dollars, and his world is turned upside down.
Farahad ZAMA, THE MARRIAGE BUREAU FOR RICH PEOPLE (276 pages) What does an Indian man with a wealth of common sense do when his retirement becomes too monotonous for him to stand? Open a marriage bureau of course! Andy WEIR, THE MARTIAN (360 pages) - After a bad storm cuts his team’s Mars mission short, injured astronaut Mark Watley is stranded. Now he’s got to figure out how to survive without air, shelter, food, or water on the harsh Martian landscape until the next manned mission in four years. Jojo MOYES, ME BEFORE YOU (480 pages) - Me Before You is an unlikely love story involving a fallen Master of the Universe and the down-to-earth caretaker who revives him. Kim EDWARDS, THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER (401 pages) - A doctor delivers his own twins, and upon seeing that the daughter has Down's syndrome, tells his nurse to take the baby to an institution and never reveal the secret. The nurse disappears into another city to raise the child herself in this tale of redemptive love and long-buried secrets that unfolds over a quarter of a century. Alice Melike ULGEZER, THE MEMORY OF SALT (320 pages) – Ali’s father is Turkish and her mother is Australian. This novel is Ali’s coming to terms with this meeting of two cultures that are at once so similar and so separate. Jeffery EUGENIDES, MIDDLESEX (529 pages) – This is the story of Calliope Stephanides, who discovers at the age of fourteen that she is really a he. Cal traces the story of his transformation and the genetic condition that caused it back to his paternal grandparents, who happen also to be brother and sister, and the Greek village of Bithynios in Asia Minor. Karen FOXLEE, THE MIDNIGHT DRESS (327 pages) - Rose, nearly sixteen, is used to traveling around with her alcoholic father but connects with the people of a small, coastal Australian town, especially classmate Pearl and reclusive Edie, who teaches her to sew a magical dress for the Harvest Festival while a mystery unfolds around them.
John BERENDT, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL (386 pages) Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defence? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. Jessie BURTON, THE MINIATURIST (400 pages) - A dollhouse whose figures and furnishings foretell life events, mysterious notes, family secrets and the powerful guild and church of 1686 Amsterdam. All these elements combine for an engaging story of a young bride’s struggle to be the ‘architect of her own fortune. ## Ransom RIGGS, MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (352 pages) - A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Susan ABULHAWA, MORNINGS IN JENIN (338 pages) - This is Amal's story, the story of one family's struggle and survival through over sixty years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, carrying us from Jenin to Jerusalem, to Lebanon and the anonymity of America. Tracy KIDDER, MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS (312 pages) - The true story of a gifted man who loves the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it. In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. ## Elena FERRANTE, MY BRILLIANT FRIEND (331 pages) - Beginning in the 1950s Elena and Lila grow up in Naples, Italy. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila. George JOHNSTON, MY BROTHER JACK (367 pages) - David and Jack Meredith grow up in a patriotic suburban Melbourne household during the First World War, and go on to lead lives that could not be more different. Joanna RAKOFF, MY SALINGER YEAR (272 pages) – A memoir about literary New York in the late nineties, a pre-digital world on the cusp of vanishing, where a young woman finds herself entangled with one of the last great figures of the century. ## Charlotte WOOD, THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS (315 pages) - Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in an abandoned property in the middle of a desert in a story of two friends, sisterly love and courage - a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted. Kazuo ISHIGURO, NEVER LET ME GO (282 pages) - A reunion with two childhood friends-Ruth and Tommy--draws Kath and her companions on a nostalgic odyssey into the supposedly idyllic years of their lives at Hailsham, an isolated private school in the serene English countryside, and a dramatic confrontation with the truth about their childhoods and about their lives in the present.
Cormac McCARTHY, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (309 pages) - Stumbling upon a bloody massacre, a cache of heroin, and more than $2 million in cash during a hunting trip, Llewelyn Moss removes the money, a decision that draws him and his young wife into the middle of a violent confrontation. Neil GAIMAN, THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE (243 pages) - Presents a modern fantasy about fear, love, magic, and sacrifice in the story of a family at the mercy of dark forces, whose only defence is the three women who live on a farm at the end of the lane. John STEINBECK, OF MICE AND MEN (106 pages) - Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend, Lennie, have nothing in the world except each other and a dream – a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Ian McEWAN, ON CHESIL BEACH (166 pages) - Ian McEwan's novel about a disastrous wedding night brings the grand narrative of history to bear on the small picture of individual lives. David NICHOLS, ONE DAY (437 pages) – Over twenty years, snapshots of an unlikely relationship are revealed on the same day of each year. Caroline OVERINGTON, ONLY IN NEW YORK (245 pages) - An uplifting tale of one woman juggling her dream job as a foreign correspondent, the demands of 2-year-old twins, a high-flying husband who can’t get a green card, and all the temptations of life in New York City. Ceridwen DOVEY, ONLY THE ANIMALS (245 pages) - Ten tales are told by the souls of animals killed in human conflicts in the past century or so, from a camel in colonial Australia to a cat in the trenches in World War I Philippa GREGORY, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (672 pages) - When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen.... Chris CLEAVE, THE OTHER HAND (374 pages) - It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn't. And it's what happens afterward that is most important. Stephanie BISHOP, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD (352 pages) - Cambridge 1963. Charlotte struggles to reconnect with the woman she was before children, and to find the time and energy to paint. Her husband, Henry, cannot face the thought of another English winter. A brochure, slipped through the letterbox, gives him the answer: 'Australia brings out the best in you'. ## Kent HARUF, OUR SOULS AT NIGHT (189 pages) - David Nicholls Addie Moore's husband died years ago, so did Louis Waters' wife, and, as neighbours in Holt, Colorado they have naturally long been aware of each other. The nights are terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk to. Then one evening Addie pays Louis an unexpected visit. Per PETTERSEN, OUT STEALING HORSES (258 pages) - After a meeting with his only neighbour, sixty-seven-year-old Trond is forced to reflect upon a long-ago incident that marks the beginning of a series of losses for Trond and his childhood friend, Jon.
W. Somerset MAUGHAM, THE PAINTED VEIL (213 pages) - Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the status she fought so hard to attain in Hong Kong, she reassesses her life and ability to love. Paula McLAIN, THE PARIS WIFE (385 pages) - No twentieth-century American writer has captured the popular imagination as much as Ernest Hemingway. This novel tells his story from a unique point of view — that of his first wife, Hadley. Leif ENGER, PEACE LIKE A RIVER (365 pages) - The quiet 1960s Midwestern life of the Land family--father Jeremiah, and children, Reuben, Davy and Swede--is upended when Davy kills two teenage boys who have come to harm the family. On the morning of his sentencing, Davy escapes from his cell and the Lands set out in search of him. Their search is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world. Geraldine BROOKS, PEOPLE OF THE BOOK (390 pages) - This is an extraordinary history of a Jewish prayer book. Hannah Heath is an archivist is repairing the book, she finds unexpected things in the binding: a granule of salt, a wine stain, a fragment of a butterfly wing. As she discovers these items, the reader sees the story of their introduction into the book. Patrick SUSKIND, PERFUME (296 pages) - Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder. Jane AUSTEN, PERSUASION (192 pages) - How far should one yield to persuasion from older, wiser, loving people? When is advice interference? In Jane Austen’s last completed work her characteristic incisiveness gains an autumnal tone. Oscar WILDE, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (213 pages) - Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Jean-Paul DIDIERLAURENT, THE READER ON THE 6:27 (256 pages) - Guylain Vignolles lives on the edge of existence. Working at a book pulping factory in a job he hates, he has but one pleasure in life . . . Sitting on the 6.27 train each day. Guylain recites aloud from pages he has saved from the jaws of his monstrous pulping machine. And it's this release of words into the world that starts our hero on a journey that will finally bring meaning into his life. ## Ernest CLINE, READY PLAYER ONE (374 pages) - Immersing himself in a mid-twentyfirst-century technological virtual utopia to escape an ugly real world of famine, poverty, and disease, Wade Watts joins an increasingly violent effort to solve a series of puzzles by the virtual world's creator. ## Magda SZUBANSKI, RECKONING (374 pages) - Magda describes her journey of selfdiscovery from a suburban childhood, haunted by the demons of her father’s espionage activities in wartime Poland and by her secret awareness of her sexuality, to the complex dramas of adulthood and her need to find out the truth about herself and her family.
Anita DIAMANT, THE RED TENT (395 pages) - The Red Tent tells the story of Dinah from the Bible, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph, a talented midwife and proto-feminist. The book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law, take refuge while menstruating or giving birth, and in which they find mutual support and encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts. Robert GOOLRICK, A RELIABLE WIFE (291 pages) - He placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for "a reliable wife." She responded, saying that she was "a simple, honest woman." She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was her single-minded determination to marry this man and then kill him, slowly and carefully, leaving her a wealthy widow, able to take care of the one she truly loved. Richard YATES, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (338 pages) – Frank and April Wheeler are a bright young couple who are bored by the banalities of suburban life and long to be extraordinary. Ben Aaronovitch, RIVERS OF LONDON (392 pages) - Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Emma DONOGHUE, ROOM (401 pages) – Jack and Ma live in a locked room that measures eleven foot by eleven. When he turns five, he starts to ask questions, and his mother reveals to him that there is a world outside. Told entirely in Jack’s voice, Room is no horror story or tearjerker, but a celebration of resilience and the love between parent and child. E. M. FORSTER, A ROOM WITH A VIEW (240 pages) - Lucy Honeychurch falls in love while on a visit to Florence and must choose between fulfilling her social role or following her heart. Graeme SIMSION, THE ROSIE PROJECT (329 pages) – Don Tillman designed the Wife Project, using a questionnaire to help him 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, and on a quest of her own to find her biological father—a search that Don, a professor of genetics, might just be able to help her with. Augusten BURROUGHS, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS (304 pages) - The true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa, and a lunatic in the bargain. Susan DUNCAN, SALVATION CREEK (386 pages) - Heartbreaking, funny, and honest, this is the story of a woman who found the courage not only to walk away from a successful career and begin again, but to beat the odds in her own battle for survival and find a new life—and love—in a tiny waterside idyll cut off from the outside world. Tatiana de ROSNAY, SARAH’S KEY (294 pages) - On the sixtieth anniversary of the 1942 roundup of Jews by the French police in the Vel d'Hiv section of Paris, American journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article on this dark episode during World War II and embarks on investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah, a young girl caught up in the raid.
Ian McEWAN, SATURDAY (279 pages) - Saturday is a novel set within a single day -- 15 February 2003. A successful, happily married neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne is drawn into a confrontation with Baxter, a small-time thug, following a minor motor vehicle accident, an encounter that has savage consequences. Erica BAUERMEISTER, THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS (261 pages) – Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian’s restaurant for a cooling class. The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian’s soulful dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. And one by one they are transformed by the aromas, flavours, and textures of what they create.... Sue Monk KIDD, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES (336 pages) - The Secret Life of Bees is the story of Lily, a fourteen-year-old girl who runs away from her unloving father to search for the secrets of her dead mother's past. Barbara TRAPIDO, SEX AND STRAVINSKY (303 pages) - The time is 1995, but everybody is linked by their past. Brilliant Australian Caroline can command everyone except her own ghoulish mother, which means that things aren't easy for Josh and Zoe, her husband and twelve-year-old daughter. Josh has bizarre origins in a South African mining town, but now teaches mime in Bristol.
Carlos Ruis ZAFON, THE SHADOW OF THE WIND (487 pages) - It is 1945 and Barcelona is enduring the long aftermath of civil war when Daniel Sempere’s bookseller father decides he is old enough to visit the fabulous secret library, the ‘Cemetery of Forgotten Books’. There, Daniel must ‘adopt’ a single book, promising to care for it and keep it alive always. Robert DREWE, THE SHARK NET (358 pages) - Aged six, Robert Drewe moved with his family from Melbourne to Perth, the world's most isolated city - and proud of it. This sun-baked coast was innocently proud, too, of its tranquility and friendliness. Then a man he knew murdered a boy he also knew… Michel DIGNAND, SHE KNOWS HOW TO LOOK AFTER HERSELF (165 pages) – Seventeen widely different scenarios, seventeen widely different outcomes in this collection of stories from local author Michel. Annie PROULX, THE SHIPPING NEWS (352 pages) - When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just desserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. ## Mary S. LOVELL, THE SISTERS (640 pages) - A portrait of the Mitford sisters follows Jessica, a communist; Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy, a best-selling novelist; Diana, who was the most hated woman in England; and Unity, who was obsessed with Adolf Hitler. Tanya BRYON, THE SKELETON CUPBOARD (301 pages) - Tanya Byron's account of her years of training as a clinical psychologist, when trainees find themselves in the toughest placements of their careers. Through the eyes of her naive and inexperienced younger self, Tanya shares remarkable stories inspired by the people she had the privilege to treat.
Christos TSIOLKAS, THE SLAP (496 pages) - At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own. This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event. ## Jodi PICCOULT, SMALL GREAT THINGS (480 pages) - Hesitating to treat the newborn of a white supremacist couple who has demanded that a white nurse assist them, a black nurse is placed on trial in the tragic aftermath and is aided by a white public defender with whom she begins questioning their beliefs as the case becomes more racially charged. Lisa SEE, SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN (288 pages) - A language kept a secret for a thousand years forms the backdrop for an unforgettable novel of two Chinese women whose friendship and love sustains them through their lives. James BUTTON, SPEECHLESS : A YEAR IN MY FATHER’S BUSINESS (246 pages) - James Button grew up immersed in the Australian Labor Party as the son of the streetfighting Senator John Button, an environment that encouraged him to become a political journalist and then a speechwriter for former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Mark DAPIN, SPIRIT HOUSE (356 pages) - a story of the fall of Singapore and life as a POW, of the bonds of life-long friendship and the bonds of grief, and of a young boy making sense of his future while old men try to live with their past. Emily St John MANDEL, STATION ELEVEN (336 pages) - An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. Lisa GENOVA, STILL ALICE (292 pages) - Genova gives us a hauntingly accurate portrayal of a young woman's descent into Alzheimer's Disease from the prime of life and the loftiest of cerebral heights. John WILLIAMS, STONER (278 pages) - William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. Irene NEMIROVSKY, SUITE FRANCAISE (431 pages) - A story of life in France under the Nazi occupation includes two parts--"Storm in June," set amid the chaotic 1940 exodus from Paris, and "Dolce," set in a German-occupied village rife with resentment, resistance, and collaboration. Rosalie HAM, SUMMER AT MOUNT HOPE (296 pages) - Summer At Mount Hope is the story of a young woman growing up in rural Victoria, Australia in a time of drought and depression. It is the story of her quest to retain freedom despite the strictures and expectations of family and society. Siri HUSTVEDT, THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN (182 pages) - After Mia Fredricksen's husband of thirty years asks for a pause - so he can indulge his infatuation with a young French colleague - she cracks up (briefly), rages (deeply), then decamps to her prairie childhood home.
Steven Levitt & Stephen DUBNER, SUPERFREAKONOMICS (288 pages) – Four years in the making, Super Freakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What’s more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it’s so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary? By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is. Tara June WINCH, SWALLOW THE AIR (198 pages) - When May's mother dies suddenly, she and her brother Billy are taken in by an aunt. However their loss leaves them both searching for their place in a world that doesn't want them. May sets off to find her father and her Aboriginal identity. Alan BRADLEY, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE (363 pages) Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is propelled into a mystery when a man is found murdered on the grounds of her family's decaying English mansion and Flavia's father becomes the main suspect. Peter CAREY, THEFT (269 pages) - Michael "Butcher" Boone is an ex-“really famous" painter, now reduced to living in a remote country house and acting as caretaker for his younger brother, Hugh. Alone together they've forged a delicate equilibrium, a balance instantly destroyed when a mysterious young woman named Marlene walks out of a rainstorm and into their lives. Tim O’BRIEN, THE THINGS THEY CARRIED (236 pages) - They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Diane SETTERFIELD, THE THIRTEENTH TALE (456 pages) - When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales. Patricia HIGHSMITH, THIS SWEET SICKNESS (288 pages) - Obsessed with his love for Annabelle Delaney, David Kelsey tries to break up her marriage and succeeds in accidentally killing her husband. Victoria HISLOP, THE THREAD (390 pages) - The troubled history of the city of Thessaloniki in a story that spans almost a century, beginning with the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 which almost destroyed the city, burning for almost two days and razing 9,500 houses. The city that rose from the ashes would be very different. Jamie MASON, THREE GRAVES FULL (306 pages) - More than a year ago, mildmannered Jason Getty killed a man he wished he’d never met. Then he planted the problem a little too close to home. But just as he’s learning to live with the undeniable reality of what he’s done, police unearth two bodies on his property—neither of which is the one Jason buried. Nick HARKAWAY, THE TIGERMAN (372 pages) - Assigned to a ceremonial post in Mancreu, British consul and Afghanistan war veteran Lester Ferris is compelled to disregard widespread underworld activities while bonding with a comic-addicted youth who during a violent uprising desperately relies on him for help.
Harper LEE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (309 pages) - To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's first novel. The book is set in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and a father, defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a poor white girl, Mayella Ewell Bryce CORBETT, A TOWN LIKE PARIS (304 pages) - Australian journalist Corbett offers a humorous and vivid account of his love affair with Paris. Betty SMITH, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (496 pages) - The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg Belinda NIALL,
TRUE NORTH : THE STORY OF MARY AND ELISABETH
DURACK
(248 pages) - Brenda Niall was given unprecedented access to private family letters, unpublished memoirs, diaries and family papers to write True North – a biography of the two sisters and a uniquely Australian story.
## Liane MORIATY, TRULY MADLY GUILTY (415 pages) - A typical afternoon barbecue among friends becomes something much bigger when one moment of inattention leads to repercussions for all in attendance. The story flashes back and forth between the day of the barbecue and two months later, slowly revealing the events of the day and its consequences Mitch ALBOM, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE (197 pages) - Mitch Albom rediscovers the friendship he had with his college professor, Morrie Schwartz in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Morrie visited Mitch in his study every Tuesday. This is a chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world. ## Milan KUNDERA, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING (320 pages) After the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, a married surgeon, Tomas, becomes a window washer while trying to reconcile himself to decisions that he and his wife must make about their relationship. Alan BENNETT, THE UNCOMMON READER (120 pages) - By turns cheeky and charming, the novella features the Queen herself as its protagonist. When her yapping corgis lead her to a mobile library, Her Majesty develops a new obsession with reading. Rachel JOYCE, THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY (357 pages) – When Harold Fry leaves home one morning to post a letter, with his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. A. J. MACKINNON, THE UNLIKELY VOYAGE OF JACK de CROW (356 pages) Equipped with his cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, A.J. Mackinnon takes the reader with him from the borders of North Wales to the Black Sea - 4900 kilometres over salt and fresh water, under sail, at the oars or at the end of a tow rope - through 12 countries, 282 locks and numerous trials.
]Alice PUNG, UNPOLISHED GEM (282 pages) – In this lyrical, bittersweet memoir, Alice grows up straddling two worlds, East and West, her insular family and the Australia outside. With wisdom beyond her years and a keen eye for comedy in everyday life, she writes of the trials of assimilation and cultural misunderstanding, and of the tender but fraught relationships between three generations of women trying to live the Australian dream without losing themselves. Maggie O’FARRELL, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX (245 pages) – A tale of two sisters in colonial India and Edinburg bound together by loneliness and driven apart by rivalries that lead to a cruel betrayal; it is also the gripping story of how 60 years later, their shocking secret comes to life. Anthony CAPELLA, THE VARIOUS FLAVOURS OF COFFEE (560 pages) – A passionate adventure set against the backdrop of the coffee trade. Stretching from London to Africa at the turn of the last century, The Various Flavours of Coffee is a sweeping saga of forbidden love, trade secrets, and the playfully delicious story of a young man’s coming-of-age. Arnold ZABLE, VIOLIN LESSONS (194 pages) – From the cabarets of 1940s Baghdad to the streets of war-torn Saigon and the canals and alleyways of present-day Venice, music weaves through each of these spellbinding true stories. Bill BRYSON, A WALK IN THE WOODS (397 pages) - Returning to the U.S. after 20 years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance. Karen Joy FOWLER, WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES (308 pages) - Meet the Cooke family. Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped talking; as a young woman, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting, of protective cover. Something happened, something so awful she has buried it in the recesses of her mind. Marina LEWYCKA, WE ARE ALL MADE OF GLUE (419 pages) - Georgie Sinclair's life is coming unstuck. Her husband's left her. Her son's obsessed with the End of the World. And now her elderly neighbour Mrs Shapiro has decided they are related. Lionel SHRIVER, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (432 pages) - Kevin Katchadourian killed seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher, shortly before his sixteenth birthday. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a series of letters to her estranged husband Franklin, the story of Kevin’s upbringing. Liane MORIARTY, WHAT ALICE FORGOT (416 pages) - Suffering an accident that causes her to forget the last ten years of her life, Alice is astonished to discover that she is thirtynine years old, a mother of three children, and in the midst of an acrimonious divorce from a man she dearly loves. ## Sofi OKSANEN, WHEN THE DOVES DISAPPEARED (320 pages) - A story of occupation, resistance, and collaboration in Estonia during and after World War II.
David SEDARIS, WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES (336 pages) - A collection of essays that explores such topics as an effort to make coffee while the water is shut off, an annoying fellow passenger on a plane journey, and a smoking-cessation trip to Tokyo. K. T. MEDINA, WHITE CROCODILE (384 pages) - After her estranged husband goes missing while clearing minefields, Tess Hardy travels to Cambodia to search for him and uncover the truth, amidst tales of a mythical White Crocodile that kills everyone it meets. Roffey MONIQUE, THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE (448 pages) When George and Sabine Harwood arrive in Trinidad from England. George instantly takes to their new life, but Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill at ease with the racial segregation and the imminent dawning of a new era. Cheryl STRAYED, WILD: A JOURNEY FROM LOST TO FOUND (315 pages) - A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.
WITHOUT RESERVATIONS : THE TRAVELS OF AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN (278 pages) - The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer explores the Alice STEINBACH,
nature of independence, chronicling her own adventures as a woman in search of freedom from the things that define her as she journeys to Paris, Oxford, Milan, and beyond. Cate KENNEDY, THE WORLD BENEATH (342 pages) – Once, Rich and Sandy were environmental activists, part of a world-famous blockade in Tasmania to save the wilderness. Now, twenty-five years later, about the only thing they have in common is their fifteen-year-old daughter, Sophie. When the perennially restless Rich decides to take Sophie, whom he hardly knows, on a trek into the Tasmanian wilderness, a chain of events is set off that no-one could have predicted. Joan DIDION, THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING (227 pages) - An autobiographical portrait of marriage and motherhood by an acclaimed author detailing her struggle to come to terms with life and death, illness, sanity, personal upheaval and grief. Geraldine BROOKS, YEAR OF WONDERS (308 pages) - When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Diane ACKERMAN, THE ZOO KEEPER’S WIFE (349 pages) - Documents the true story of Warsaw Zoo keepers and resistance activists Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who in the aftermath of Germany's invasion of Poland saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens by smuggling them into empty cages and their home villa.
Your Wish List To help us with your Book Club selections, consult with club members to select your choices and then fill in the following form and return it to your branch library. We will always try to send books from your Wish List, but, if your choices are not available, we will send you a random choice. Remember, part of the beauty of Book Club is reading books that you may not have chosen yourself. If there are any titles you do not wish to read, please add them to the No Thanks list. (Please Note: This is not a list of books that your group have already read via Book Club, we have a record of your group’s past loans).
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