Riverina Regional Library Book Club Kits 2015

Book Club Kits 2015 January 2015

Following is a list of all titles available for loan to Book Clubs of Riverina Regional Library.

The list is in alphabetical order by title, and includes a short description of the book.

We hope you enjoy our selections!

About a boy NICK HORNBY - Will is thirty-six, comfortable and childfree. 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. (278 p.)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn MARK TWAIN - Climb aboard the raft with Huck and Jim and drift away from the "sivilized" life and into a world of adventure, excitement, danger, and self-discovery. (384 p.)

Affluenza CLIVE HAMILTON - Anyone concerned about the level of their personal debt or frustrated by the rat race of aspiring to an affluent lifestyle will appreciate this critique of the effects of overconsumption. This analysis pulls no punches as it describes both the problem and what can be done to stop it. (194 p.)

African sky TONY PARK - Paul Bryant hasn’t been able to get back in a plane since a fatal bombing mission over Germany. So, instead, the squadron leader is flying a desk at a pilot training school at Kumalo Air Base. But one of his trainees has just been reported missing. (505 p.)

The Alchemist PAUL COELHO - 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. (192 p.)

Alive PIERS PAUL READ - On October 12, 1972, a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a team of rugby players crashed in the remote snowy peaks of the Andes. Ten weeks later, only sixteen of the forty-five passengers were found alive. (398 p.)

All that I am ANNA FUNDER - When Hitler comes to power in 1933, a tight-knit group of friends and lovers become hunted outlaws overnight. United in their resistance to the madness and tyranny of Nazism, they must flee the country to London (370 p.)

All the pretty horses CORMAC McCARTHY– The tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself.

With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood. (310 p.)

The amateur marriage ANNE TYLER - 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. (352 p.)

The American heiress DAISY GOODWIN - 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. (468 p.)

The art of racing in the rain GARTH STEIN - 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. (321 p.)

Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress DAJ SIJIE - 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. (172 p.)

The bees LALINE PAULL - 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. (344 p.)

Before I fall LAUREN OLIVER - After she dies in a car crash, teenager Samantha relives the day of her death over and over until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself (344 p.)

Before I go to sleep S.J. WATSON - 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. (366 p.)

Bel Canto ANN PATCHETT - 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. 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….

(352 p.)

A big little life : a memoir of a joyful dog DEAN KOONTZ - Dean had always wanted a dog--had even written several books in which dogs were featured. But not until Trixie was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful creature could bring about in him. (269 p.)

The black dahlia JAMES ELLROY - 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. (383 p.)

Black kettle and full moon GEOFFREY BLAINEY - Deals with everyday life in white Australia, from the eve of our first gold rush to World War I. (484 p.)

Blackwater lightship COLM TOIBIN - It is Ireland in the early 1990s. Helen, her mother, Lily, and her grandmother, Dora have come together to tend to Helen's brother, Declan, who is dying of AIDS. With Declan's two friends, the six of them are forced to plumb the shoals of their own histories and to come to terms with each other. (272 p.)

The blind assassin MARGARET ATWOOD – This novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. (632 p.)

The blood of flowers ANITA AMIRREZVANI - After her father dies without leaving her with a dowry, a seventeenth-century Persian teen becomes servant to her wealthy rug designer uncle in the court of Shah Abbas the Great, where weaving talents prove both a blessing and curse. (215 p.)

The book of human skin MICHELLE LOVRIC - 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 (500 p.)

The book of Joe JONATHAN TROPPER - 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. (338 p.)

Book of lost threads TESS EVANS - In the small town of Opportunity, four mismatched people discover the unexpected power of kindness. (350 p.)

The book thief MARKUS ZUSACK - 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. (584 p.)

The bookseller of Kabul ASNE SEIRSTAD – After living for three months with the Kabul bookseller Sultan Khan in the spring of 2002, Norwegian journalist Seierstad penned this astounding portrait of a nation recovering from war, undergoing political flux and mired in misogyny and poverty.

(276 p.)

The Bourne identity ROBERT LUDLAM - A shooting victim, suffering from amnesia, finds himself with a Swiss bank account in the name of Jason Bourne, a professional assassin being manipulated by a top secret American government organisation to kill his arch rival, the dreaded Carlos. (566 p.)

The boy in the striped pyjamas JOHN BOYNE - 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. (216 p.)

Brave new world ALDOUS HUXLEY – Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society, where all members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress...

(229 p.)

Breath TIM WINTON - Falling under the spell of an enigmatic extremesports surfer, a thrill-seeking pair of Western Australian adolescents are initiated into a world of high stakes adventures and dangerous boundary testing. (264 p.)

Brick Lane MONICA ALI - 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.

(492 p.)

Brideshead revisited EVELYN WAUGH - 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. (326 p.)

Burial rites HANNAH KENT - 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. (352 p.)

Burned alive SOUD – A memoir by a young Jordanian woman who was the victim of an “honor crime”. She 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. (210 p.)

Bypass MICHAEL McGIRR - 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. (307 p.)

Caleb’s crossing GERALDINE BROOKS - 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.

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.

(306 p.)

The casual vacancy J.K. ROWLING - When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. (512 p.)

Catch 22 JOSEPH HELLER - Set in the closing months of World War II, in an American bomber squadron on a small island off Italy. Its hero is a bombardier named Yossarian, who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he hasn't even met keep trying to kill him. (He has decided to live forever even if he has to die in the attempt. (519 p.)

Claire of the sea light EDWIDGE DANTICAT - The interconnected secrets of a coastal Haitian town are revealed when one little girl, the daughter of a fisherman, goes missing. (239 p.)

Cold comfort farm STELLA GIBBONS - 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. (233 p.)

Cold sassy tree OLIVE ANN BURNS - 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.

(391 p.)

The collected works of A.J. Fikry GABRIELLE ZEVIN— 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. (243 p.)

Commuters EMILY GRAY TEDROWE - 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. (378 p.)

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time MARK HADDON 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. (268 p.)

Currawalli Street CHRISTOPHER MORGAN - 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. (296 p.)

Defending Jacob WILLIAM LANDAY - Andy Barber has been an assistant DA for more than twenty years. He is respectd in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife and son. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next. His 14 year old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. (488 p.)

Delicious! RUTH REICHL - Working as a public relations hotline consultant for a once-prestigious culinary magazine, Billie Breslin unexpectedly enters a world on New York restaurateurs and artisanal purveyors while reading World War II letters exchanged between a plucky 12 year old and the legendary chef James Beard.

Digging to America ANNE TYLER - 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 (330 p.)

The dinner HERMAN KOCH - 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…

(304 p.)

Dirt music TIM WINTON - 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.

(461 p.)

Disgrace J.M. COETZEE – 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.

(224 p.)

The diving bell and the butterfly JEAN-DOMINIQUE BAUBY – 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. (139 p.)

The dovekeepers ALICE HOFFMAN - 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 keeps doves and secrets while Roman soldiers draw near. (504 p.)

Dreams from my father BARACK OBAMA - 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. (442 p.)

The dressmaker ROSALIE HAM - 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. (296 p.)

Eat pray love ELIZABETH GILBERT - Traces the author’s decision to quit her joband travel the world for a year after suffering a midlife crisis and divorce, a journey that took her to three places in her quest to explore her own nature and learn the art of spiritual balance (331 p.)

The elegance of the hedgehog MURIEL BARBERY - follows the 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 the world, but everything changes when a new tenant arrives, a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu.

(320 p.)

The end of your life book club WILL SCHWALBE - 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 an end. (336 p.)

Eucalyptus MURRAY BAIL - A fable-like novel from prize-winning Australian writer Bail poses an age-old question: How do you win a woman's heart? (254 p.)

Euphoria LILY KING - 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 tulultuous relationship with them. (261 p.)

Exit music IAN RANKIN - (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… (448 p.)

Fall girl TONI JORDAN - Della Gilmore has been conning people since she was a child. Now she is attempting to pull off the biggest coup of her career. (232 p.)

The family Fang KEVIN WILSON - Annie and Buster Fang have spent most of their adult lives trying to distance themselves from their famous artist parents, Caleb and Camille. But when a bad economy and a few bad personal decisions converge, the two siblings have nowhere to turn but their family home. (336 p.)

The fault in our stars JOHN GREEN - Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has brought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnois. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augutus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten (322 p.)

A few right thinking men SULARI GENTILL – 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. (346 p.)

Fire in the blood IRENE NAMIROVSKY - The novel is narrated by Silvio, a solitary old man looking back at his life, the passions of his youth, and the folly still being committed because of the madness of love. (153 p.)

Foreign correspondence GERALDINE BROOKS – The leap between dreamy child living in a provincial Australian neighbourhood and journalist hopscotching through war zones is massive. Geraldine Brooks unravels the rope that pulled and tugged her toward adventure and away from "a very small world" where her family had no car and had never boarded a plane or placed an international phone call. (244 p.)

Foreign soil MAXINE BENEBA CLARK - 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.

The forgotten garden KATE MORTON - On the night of her twenty-first 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. (554 p.)

A fortunate life A.B. FACEY - This is the extraordinary life of an ordinary man. It is the story of Albert Facey, who lived with simple honesty, compassion and courage. (422 p.)

Gang of four LIZ BYRSKI - 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. (399 p.)

The girl with the dragon tattoo STIEG LARSSON - Journalist Mikael Blomkvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, which took place forty years ago (533 p.)

The glass castle JEANETTE WALLS – 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. (341 p.)

The god of small things ARUNDHATI ROY - 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. (336 p.)

Gone girl GILLIAN FLYNN - 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 (463 p.)

Great expectations CHARLES DICKENS - 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. (575 p.)

The great Gatsby F. SCOTT FITZGERLAD - Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Set in 1920’s America. (169 p.)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society MARY ANN SHAFFER and ANNIE BARROWS - In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation. (290 p.)

Half of a yellow sun CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE - In 1960s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. And Richard, a shy English writer, is in thrall to Olanna's enigmatic twin sister. (543 p.)

Half of the human race ANTHONY QUINN - London. In the sweltering summer of 1911, the streets ring to the cheers for a new king's coronation, and to the cries of suffragist women marching for the vote.

One of them is twenty-one-year-old Connie Callaway, daughter of a middle-class Islington family fallen on hard times since the death of her father. (349 p.)

Hamlet’s BlackBerry WILLIAM POWERS - A crisp, passionately argued answer to the question that everyone who’s grown dependent on digital devices is asking: Where’s the rest of my life? Hamlet’s BlackBerry challenges the widely held assumption that the more we connect through technology, the better. (267 p.)

The happiest refugee AHN DO - The laugh-out-loud, reach-for-yourhanky story of one of Australia's best-loved comedians. (229 p.)

The happiness jar SAMANTHA TIDY - 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 each other. (334 p.)

The hare with amber eyes EDMUND DE WAAL - 264 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… (264 p.)

Hazel : my mother’s story SUE PIETERS-HAWKE – 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.(429 p.)

Head over heels SAM and JENNY BAILEY – 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. (256 p.)

The help KATHRYN STOCKETT – A novel about black maids in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. The black maids work with Skeeter Phelan, a white woman, to create a book depicting their lives. (464 p.)

High sobriety JILL STARK – 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? (307 p.)

His illegal self PETER CAREY - 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. An achingly beautiful story of the love between a young woman and a little boy. (270 p.)

Homecoming BERNHARD SCHLINK - 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. (272 p.)

Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet JAMIE FORD – 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. (366 p.)

How Proust can change your life ALAIN DE BOTTON - Drawing from Proust's letters, essays, and fiction, de Botton transforms Proust's life and work into a no-nonsense guide to life. (215 p.)

I have a bed made of buttermilk pancakes JACLYN MORIARITY - Cath Murphy, second-grade teacher, was feeling awkward and foolish, but she also felt this: quirky, cocky, small, funny, wicked and extremely blonde. She was about to meet her new class. However, Cath Murphy has yet to meet the Zing family... (424 p.)

I know why the caged bird sings MAYA ANGELOU - In this first volume of her autobiography, Maya evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. (309 p.)

I shall be near to you ERIN LINDSAY McCABE - An extraordinary novel about a strong-willed woman who disguises herself as a man in order to fight beside her husband in the American Civil War. Inspired by a real female soldier’s letters home.

I suck at girls JUSTIN HALPERN - Presents a humorous collection of stories about

the

author’s

relationships

with

the

opposite

sex

told

chronologically, from his first kiss to getting engaged (180 p.)

I’m not scared NICCOLA AMMANITI - 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. (215 p.)

The idea of perfection KATE GRENVILLE - 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. (401 p.)

An imaginary life DAVID MALOUF – The Roman poet Ovid, in exile, tells the story of his encounter with a wild boy, brought up among wolves in the snow. (153 p.)

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks REBECCA SKLOOT - 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. (310 p.)

In cold blood TRUMAN CAPOTE – In Colld 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. (343 p.)

In her blood ANNIE HAUXWELL - 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 (320 p.)

Indelible ink FIONA McGREGOR - 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. (452 p.)

Ines of my soul ISABELLE ALLENDE - 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. (336 p.)

Infidel AYAAN HIRSI ALI - Coming-of-age memoir. Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West. (384 p.)

The innocents FRANCESCA SEGAL - 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. (282 p.)

The invisible woman CLAIRE TOMALIN - A portrait on nineteenth-century actress Ellen Ternan, the woman who was the mistress of Charles Dickens, describing her secret relationship with the author. (283 p.)

The island VICTORIA HISLOP - 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. (469 p.)

Jane Eyre CHARLOTTE BRONTE - 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. (545 p.)

Jar city ARNALDUR INDRIDASON- 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. (338 p.)

Jasper Jones CRAIG SILVEY - 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. (320 p.)

Journey to the stone country ALEX MILLER - 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. (364 p.)

The language of flowers VANESSA DIFFENBAUGH - An unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past. (352 p.)

The last runaway TRACY CHEVALIER - 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 (343 p.)

Life is so good GEORGE DAWSON and RICHARD GLAUBMAN - 103-yearold 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. (250 p.)

Life of Pi YANN MARTEL - The only survivor from the wreck of a cargo ship on the Pacific, 16 year old Pi spends 221 days on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker... (319 p.)

The light between oceans M.L. STEDMAN - 1926. Tom Sherbourne is a young lighthouse keeper on a remote island off Western Australia. The only inhabitants of Janus Rock, he and his wife Isabel live a life cocooned from the rest of the world. Then one April morning a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a crying infant - and the path of the couple's lives hits an unthinkable crossroads. (352 p.)

Like water for chocolate LAURA ESQUIVEL - Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in tum-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. (222 p.)

Listening to country ROS MORIARTY - 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. (232 p.)

Lola Bensky LILY BRETT - 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 beensent by her Australian newspaper right to the heart of the London music scene at the most exciting time in history : 1967. (267 p.)

The lonely polygamist BRADY UDALL - Golden Richards, a polygamist with four wives and twenty-eight children, has a midlife crisis affair that threatens to destroy his family’s future.(559 p.)

The longest trip home JOHN GROGAN - Like Marley & Me, The Longest Trip Home is a memoir, this time mining material from Grogan's childhood. (331 p.)

Looking for Alibrandi MELINA MARCHETTA – Josephine Alibrandi is seventeen and in her final year at a wealthy girl’s school. This is the year she meets her father, falls in love, the year she searches for Alibrandi and finds the real truth about her family – and the identity she has been searching for. (261 p.)

Lost in Shangri-la MITCHELL ZUCKOFF - 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. (384 p.)

Love in a cold climate NANCY MITFORD - 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. (249 p.)

Love in the time of cholera GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ - 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… (348 p.)

The lovely bones ALICE SEBOLD - 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. (328 p.)

The lowland JHUMPA LAHIRI - 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 (339 p.)

Major Pettigrew’s last stand HELEN SIMONSON - 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. (388 p.)

The man who lost himself ROBYN ANNEAR - All through the summer of 1874, "The Times" devoted an entire page everyday to the great Tichborne trial, the longest-running and most mesmerizing legal trial of the 19th century. This work explores the story of the man at the centre of it all they called the Tichborne Claimant. (408 p.)

A man’s got to have a hobby WILLIAM McINNES - An affectionate stroll down the memory lane of McInnes' childhood with his noisy, nutty, disorganised family. (281 p.)

The marriage bureau for rich people FARAHAD ZAMA - 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! (276 p.)

Mao’s last dancer LI CUNXIN – Li Cunxin, lived in a small house with twenty of his relatives. When he was eleven years old, Li Cunxin was taken from his family and sent to the city to the Peking Dance Academy. What follows is the story of how a small, terrified, lonely boy became one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. (490 p.)

Me before you JOJO MOYES - A love story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart? (480 p.)

The memory keeper’s daughter KIM EDWARDS - 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. (401 p.)

The memory of salt ALICE MELIKE ULGEZER - 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. (320 p.)

Middlesex JEFFREY EUGENIDES - 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. (529 p.)

Midnight in the garden of good and evil JOHN BERENDT - 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. (386 p.)

Mister God, this is Anna FYNN - Mister God, This Is Anna is a book by Sydney Hopkins under the pseudonym "Fynn" describing the adventures of Anna, a mischievous yet wise five and a half year old who Fynn finds as a runaway. Nineteen year old Fynn takes her in and becomes her caretaker and closest friend. (292 p.)

Mister Pip LLOYD JONES - Matilda lives on an island somewhere in the Pacific-but this is no paradise. Civil war is a fact of life, though at first the village is largely left alone by the soldiers and the rebel fighters. The school is closed but then Mr Watts, the only white man on the island, steps forward to do what he can to help. He begins by reading Great Expectations aloud to his students… (256 p.)

Moonlight mile DENNIS LEHANE - Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most when the missing girl they found twelve years earlier—only to see her returned to a neglectful mother and a broken home—goes missing again. (372 p.)

Mornings in Jenin SUSAN ABULHAWA — This is Amal’s story, the story of one family’s struggle and survival over sixty years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, carrying us from Jenin to Jerusalem, to Lebanon and the anonymity of America (338 p.)

The midnight dress KAREN FOXLEE - Rose, nearly sixteen, is used to travelling 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. (327 p.)

Mosquito Creek ROBERT ENGWERDA – Floodwaters have engulfed a Victorian goldfield, reducing the prospect of digging up a fortune from very slim to impossible. Sergeant Niall Kennedy must try to keep order in a place where frictions can become murderous. (337 p.)

Mountains beyond mountains TRACY KIDDER - 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. (312 p.)

My brother Jack GEORGE JOHNSTON - 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 . (367 p.)

My Salinger year JOANNA RAKOFF - 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. (272 p.)

My sister’s keeper JODI PICOULT – Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukaemia that has plagued her since childhood. (448 p.)

Never let me go KAZSUO ISHIGURO - As a child, Kathy–now thirty-one years old–lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world.

Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory. (282 p.)

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH - This first novel in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe.

Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. (233 p.)

Norwegian wood HARUKI MURAKAMI - A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love. (386 p.)

The notebook NICHOLAS SPARKS - A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap. A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn't understand. Until he begins to read to her. ...is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever. (189 p.)

The ocean at the end of the lane NEIL GAIMAN - 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 three women who live on a farm at the end of the lane. (243p.)

Of mice and men JOHN STEINBACK - 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. (106 p.)

On Chesil Beach IAN McEWAN - Ian McEwan's novel about a disastrous wedding night brings the grand narrative of history to bear on the small picture of individual lives. (166 p.)

One day DAVID NICHOLLS - Over twenty years, snapshots of an unlikely relationship are revealed on the same day each year. (437 p.)

Only in New York CAROLINE OVERINGTON - 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. (245 p.)

Only the animals CERIDWEN DOVEY - 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. (245 p.)

The other Boleyn girl PHILIPPA GREGORY - 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.... (672 p.)

The other hand CHRIS CLEAVE - 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. (576 p.)

The painted veil W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM - Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The painted veil is the story of the beautiful but lovestarved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. (213 p.)

The Paris wife PAULA McCLAIN - 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. (385 p.)

Peace like a river LEIF ENGER - The quiet 1960s Midwestern life of the Land family 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. (312 p.)

People of the book GERALDINE BROOKS - This is an extraordinary history of a Jewish prayer book. Hannah Heath, an archivist, is repairing the book, she finds unexpected things in the binding: a granuale of salt, a wine stain, a fragment of butterfly wing. As she discovers these items, the reader sees the story of their introduction into the book. (390 p.)

Perfume PATRICK SUSSKIND - 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. (296 p.)

Persuasion JANE AUSTEN - 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. (192 p.)

Picnic at hanging rock JOAN LINDSAY - Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock.

After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun. They never returned. (192 p.)

The picture of Dorian Gray OSCAR WILDE - 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. (213 p.)

The poisonwood Bible BARBARA KINGSOLVER – The story is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa. (576 p.)

The red tent ANITA DIAMANT - The story of Dinah, a tragic character from the Bible whose great love, a prince, is killed by her brother, leaving her alone and pregnant. The novel traces her life from childhood to death, in the process examining sexual and religious practices of the day, and what it meant to be a woman. (395 p.)

A reliable wife ROBERT GOOLRICK - Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman with a troubled past who lives in a remote nineteenth-century Wisconsin town, has advertised for a reliable wife; and his ad is answered by Catherine Land, a woman who makes every effort to hide her own dark secrets. (291 p.)

Revolutionary Road RICHARD YATES – Frank and April Wheeler are a bright young couple who are bored by the banalities of suburban life and long to be extraordinary. (338 p.)

Rivers of London BEN AARONOVITCH – 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. (392 p.)

Room EMMA DONOGHUE - 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. (401 p.)

The Rosie project GRAEME SIMSION – Don Tillman designed the Wife Project, using a questionnaire to help him find the perfect partner. She will definitely not be a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arrive. 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. (329 p.)

Running with scissors AUGUSTEEN BURROUGHS – 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. (304 p.)

Salvation Creek SUSAN DUNCAN - 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. (386 p.)

Sarah’s key TATIANA DE ROSNAY - 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 an investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah, a young girl caught up in the raid. (294 p.)

Saturday IAN McEWAN - 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 car accident, an encounter

that has savage

consequences (279 p.)

The scent of rain and lightning NANCY PICKARD - The man convicted of murdering Jody’s father, Bill Crosby, is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Colin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence. (319 p.)

The school of essential ingredients ERICA BAUERMEISTER - Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian’s restaurant for a cooking class. And one by one they are transformed by the aromas, flavours, and textures of what they create. (261 p.)

The secret history DONNA TARTT - Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. (629 p.)

The secret life of bees SUE MONK KIDD - 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. (336 p.)

Sex and Stravinsky BARBARA TRAPIDO - 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.

(303 p.)

The shadow of the wind CARLOS RUIZ ZAFIN - 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. (487 p.)

The shark net ROBERT DREWE - 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 tranquillity and friendliness. Then a man he knew murdered a boy he also knew. (358 p.)

She knows how to look after herself MICHEL DIGNAND - Seventeen widely different scenarios, seventeen widely different outcomes in this collection of stories from local author Michel. (165 p.)

The shipping news ANNIE PROULX - 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. (352 p.)

A short history of tractors in Ukrainian MARINA LEWYCKA - In this comedic debut novel, two feuding sisters team to save their father, an elderly Ukrainian widower (and author of a book on tractors) living just outside of London, from the very young, voluptuous Valentina, who is attempting to seduce him (and his money). (324 p.)

The skeleton cupboard TANYA BYRON - Tanya’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 naïve and inexperienced younger self, Tanya shares remarkable stories inspired by the people she had the privilege to treat. (301 p.)

The slap CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS - 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. (496 p.)

Snow falling on cedars DAVID GUTERSON - San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. (404 p.)

Snow Flower and the secret fan LISA SEE - 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. (288 p.)

So musch for that LIONEL SHRIVER - After his wife is diagnosed with cancer, Shep Knacker sees his dream of retiring to a developing country slip away, along with all the money in his once plentiful bank account, as he tries to navigate America’s labyrinthine health-care system. (531 p.)

The spare room HELEN GARNER - Helen prepares her spare room for her friend Nicola, who is flying down from Sydney for a three-week visit. But this is no ordinary visit - Nicola has advanced cancer. She is coming to Melbourne to receive treatment she believes will cure her. (175 p.)

Speechless : a year in my father’s business JAMES BUTTON - James Button grew up immersed in the Australian Labor Party as the son of the street-fighting Senator John Button, an environment that encouraged him to become a political journalist and then a speechwriter for former PM Kevin Rudd (246 p.)

Spiral Road ADIB KHAN - Masud Alam has lived in Australia for the past 30 of his 53 years. Now his father, Abba, is dying, drifting in a haze of Alzheimer′s, and Masud has returned to Bangladesh to say goodbye and to reconnect with his family. (368 p.)

Spirit house MARK DAPIN - A story of the fall of Singapore and life as 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. (356 p.)

Still Alice LISA GENOVA - 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. (292 p.)

The story of Edgar Sawtelle DAVID WROBLEWSKI - A tale reminiscent of Hamlet, that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs, follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three young canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father’s death. (566 p.)

Summer at Mount Hope ROSALIE HAM - Summer at Mount Hope is the story of a young woman growing up in rural Victoria, 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 (269 p.)

The summer without men SIRI HUSTVEDT - 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. (182 p.)

The Sunday Philosophy Club ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH - The editor of “The review of Applied Ethics” and a curious lover of puzzles, Isabel Dalhousie decides to investigate when she witnesses the fatal fall of a young man and discovers that he had been probing misdeeds at his brokerage firm (297 p.)

SuperFreakonomics STEVEN LEVITT and STEPHEN DUBNER - Asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones. Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for waht it really is. (288 p.)

Swallow the air TARA JUNE WINCH - 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. (198 p.)

Sweetness at the bottom of the pie ALAN BRADLEY - 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. (363 p.)

Tell the wolves I’m home CAROL RIFKA BRUNT -

An emotionally

charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again. (368 p.)

Theft PETER CAREY - 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 rain storm and into their lives. (269 p.)

The things they carried TIM O’BRIEN - 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. (236 p.)

The thirteenth tale DIANE SETTERFIELD - 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. (456 p.)

The thread VICTORIA HISLOP - A magnificent story of a friendship and a love that endures through the catastrophes and upheavals of the twentieth century--both natural and man-made--in the turbulent city of Thessaloniki, Greece. 390 p.)

The tigerman NICK HARKAWAY - 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. (372 p.)

Tigers in red weather LIZA KLAUSSMANN - Old secrets are revealed and lives become unravelled when the children of a well-heeled New England family discover the body of a murder victim near Tiger House, their vacation home. (388 p.)

The time traveller’s wife AUDREY NIFFENEGGER - The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. (517 p.)

To kill a mockingbird HARPER LEE - 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. (309 p.)

Toast NIGEL SLATER – Toast is Nigel Slater’s truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. In each chapter, as he takes readers on a tour of the contents of his family’s pantry—rice pudding, tinned ham, cream soda, mince pies, lemon drops, bourbon biscuits— we are transported.... (256 p.)

A town like Paris BRYCE CORBETT – Australian journalist Corbett offers a humorous and vivid account of his love affair with Paris. (304 p.)

A tree grows in Brooklyn BETTY SMITH – The story of young, sensitive and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg. (496 p.)

True north : the true story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack BELINDA NIALL - Brenda Niall was give unprecedented access to private family letters, unpublished memoirs, diaries and family papers to write True north— a biography of the two sisters and an uniquely Australian story.

(248 p.)

Tuesdays with Morrie MITCH ALBOM — 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. (197 p.)

The uncommon reader ALAN BENNETT - 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. (120 p.)

The unknown terrorist RICHARD FLANAGAN - The Unknown Terrorist makes use of the post-911 worldwide fear of terror attacks as the driving force behind this savagely relevant novel. We are taken on a nightmare ride through a city that has been whipped up into an "alarmed, not alert" frenzy. (320 p.)

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry RACHEL JOYCE - 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

(357 p.)

Unpolished gen ALICE PUNG – 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 between three generations of women trying to live the Australian dream without losing themselves. (282 p.)

The vanishing act of Esme Lennox MAGGIE O’FARRELL - 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.

(245 p.)

The various flavours of coffee ANTHONY CAPELLA – 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. (560 p.)

Violin lessons ARNOLD ZABLE - 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. (194 p.)

A visit from the goon squad JENNIFER EGAN - Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future. (340 p.)

A walk in the woods BILL BRYSON - Bryson decides 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. (397 p.)

Water for elephants SARA GRUEN - Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-yearold mind, memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. (388 p.)

We are all completely besides ourselves KAREN JOY FOWLER - 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. (308 p.)

We are all made of glue MARINA LEWYCKA - 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. (419 p.)

We need to talk about Kevin LIONEL SHRIVER — 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. (432 p.)

What Alice forgot LIANE MORIARTY — Suffering an accident that causes her to forget the last ten years of her life, Alice is astonished to discover that she is thirty-nine years old, a mother of three children, and in the middle of an acrimonious divorce from a man she dearly loves. (416 p.)

When you are engulfed in flames DAVID SEDARIS - 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 smokingcessation trip to Tokyo. (336 p.)

The white woman on the green bicycle MONIQUE ROFFEY - 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. (448 p.)

Wild CHERYL STRAYED – 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 (315 p.)

Winter Close HUGH MACKAY - Winter Close, a small cul-de-sac, is home to an eclectic group of people, including Tom. Tom is pleasant but conscious not to pry. So it comes as a shock to discover that his reserved, introverted manner may have isolated him from the rest of the residents.

In fact he might not know them as well as he thinks‌ (296 p.)

Without reservations ALICE STEINBACH - The Pulitzer Prize winning writer explores the 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. (278 p.)

The world beneath CATE KENNEDY -

Rich and Sandy were once

environmental activists. Twenty-five years later their 15-year-old daughter, Sophie, is the only thing they have in common. When Rich takes Sophie, whom he hardly knows, on a trek into the Tasmanian wilderness, his overconfidence and her growing disillusion with him set off a chain of events no-one predicts. (342 p.)

Year of wonders GERALDINE BROOKS - 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. (308 p.)

Zeitoun DAVE EGGERS - The true story of one family, caught between America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina. Told with eloquence and compassion, Zeitoun is a riveting account of unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. (335 p.)

The zookeeper’s wife DIANE ACKERMAN — Documents the true story of Warsaw Zoo keepers and resistance activists Jan and Antonia 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. (349 p.)