2017 BOOK LIST
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 age of innocence EDITH WHARTON In the highest circle of NY social life during in 1870s, 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 NY after a long absence. (305 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.)
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 light we cannot see ANTHONY DOERR - Set during World War II Europe, this is sobering without being sentimental. The tension builds as the alternating, parallel stories of Wemer and Marie-Laure unfold, and their paths cross (530 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 amazing Mrs Livesey FREDA MARNIE NICHOLLS - The truly remarkable life of 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. (303 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.)
Americanah CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE - 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. (477p.)
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.)
Barbed wire and cherry blossoms ANITA HEISS - 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. Love blossoms between Mary and Hiroshi, and they each dream of a future together. (264 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.)
Between the world and me TA-NEHISI COATES - In a series of essays, written as a letter to his son, Coates confronts the notion of race in America andhow it has shaped American history, many times at the cost of black bodies and lives (152 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 rock white city A.S. PATRIC - A story of Australia’s suburbs now, of displacement and immediate threat, and the unexpected responses of two refugees as they try to reclaim their dreams. It is a breathtaking roar of energy that explores the immigrant experience with ferocity, beauty and humour. (248 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 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 boat NAM LE - Ranging from 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. (315 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 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.)
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.)
The children of men P.D. JAMES - 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. (241 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.)
A constellation of vital phenomena ANTHONY MARRA - 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. (405 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 respected 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. (374 p.)
Did you ever have a family BILL CLEGG - A portrait of a community in the aftermath of 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. (293 p.)
The dig tree : the extra-ordinary story of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition SARAH MURGATROYD - Describes the mid-nineteenth-century Burke and Wills expedition in which 18 amateur explorers took on the task of charting a course across Australia, recounting the tragic, nightmarish results of that odyssey. (372 p.)
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.)
A distant prospect ANNETTE YOUNG - Australia promised a fresh start for Lucy Straughan and her father when they fled war-torn Ireland. Instead, Lucy was stricken by polio. (491 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.)
Driving over lemons CHRIS STEWART - It follows the first drummer for the band Genesis as he heads for Andalucia with his wife and kids. A warm, funny account of a British family’s attempt to make a home in southern Spain. (256 p.)
The dry JANE HARPER - Luke Hadler turns a gun on his wife and child, then himself. When Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk returns
for the
funerals, he is loath to confront the people who rejected him 20 years earlier. But when his investigative skills are called on, the facts of the Hadler case start to make him doubt the murder-suicide charge. (342 p.)
Eleanor & Park RAINBOW ROWELL - Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed 16 year olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. (324 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.)
Everything I never told you CELESTE NG - 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. (297 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.)
The eye of the sheep SOFIE LAGUNA - 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. (308 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.)
Far from the madding crowd THOMAS HARDY - After an unfortunate marriage to Sergeant Troy and an affair with Farmer Boldwood, Bathsheeba
Everdene finally becomes the wife of the man who has always loved her (433 p.)
Fates and furies LAUREN GROFF - Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truth but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of 24 years (389 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.)
The feel-good hit of the year LIAM PIEPER - A memoir about family, addiction and learning how to live with yourself, from a sharp and original new Australian voice (253 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.)
Fingersmith SARAH WATERS - 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 Lily (582 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 all the gifts M.R.CAREY - 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 pointing 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.(460 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.)
The Golden Age JOAN LONDON - It is 1954 and 13 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. (242 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.)
Good Muslim boy OSAMAH SAMI - Meet Osamah: 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. (257 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.)
H is for hawk HELEN MACDONALD - Recounts how the author, an experienced falconer grieving the sudden death of her father, endeavours to train for the first time a dangerous goshawk predator as part of her personal recovery. (320 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.)
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.)
Hausfrau JILL ALEXANDER ESSBAUM - Anna Benz, an American in her late thirties, lives with her Swiss husband Bruno and their three young children in a suburb of Zurich. But Anna is falling apart inside, she tries to rouse herself with new experiences. (324 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.)
History of the rain NIALL WILLIAMS - 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 (386 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’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.)
The improbability of love HANNAH ROTHSCHILD—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 mantle. But every painting has a story—and if it could speak, what would it tell us? (416 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.)
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.)
Joe Cinque’s consolation HELEN GARNER - In October 1997 a clever young ANU student 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. No one warned Joe Cinque. (328 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 Joy Luck Club AMY TAN - After being drawn together by the shadows of their past, four women start meeting every week in San Fransico to engage in hobbies they all enjoy. After one of the four members dies, her daughter takes her place to fulfil her mother’s dying wish. (288 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 after life KATE ATKINSON - 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. (250 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.)
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.)
Lost & found BROOKE DAVIS—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. (272 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.)
Mad world : Evelyn Waugh and the secrets of Brideshead PAULA BYRNE 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 (367p.)
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 malice of waves MARK DOUGLAS-HOMES - For 5 years Priest’s Island has guarded the secret of Max Wheeler’s disappearance. 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 (289 p.)
A man called Ove FREDRIK BACKMAN—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 an unexpected friendship. (337 p.)
Man in the corner NATHAN BESSER—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. (299p.)
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.)
The Martian ANDY WEIR—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, water, food and shelter on the harsh Martian landscape until the next manned mission in four years. (360 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.)
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.)
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.)
The miniaturist JESSIE BURTON—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 future. (400 p.)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children RANSOM RIGGS—A horrific family tragedy sets 16 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. (352 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.)
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 brilliant friend ELENA FERRANTE — 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 neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn also transform the relationship between the unforgettable Elena and Lila (331 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.)
The natural way of things CHARLOTTE WOOD — 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 firnds, sisterly love and courage—a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to be hunt and be hunted. (315 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.)
No country for old men CORMAC McCARTHY—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.
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.)
Olive Kitteridge ELIZABETH STROUT—The world of Olive Kitteridge, a retired school teacher in a small coastal town in Maine, is revealed in stories that explore her diverse roles in many lives, including a lounge singer haunted by a past love, her stoic husband, and her own resentful son. (260 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 other side of the world STEPHANIE BISHOP—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'. (352 p.)
Our souls at night KENT HARUF—David Nicholls, Addie Moore’s husband died years ago, so did Louis Water’s 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. (189 p.)
Out stealing horses PER PETTERSEN—After a meeting with his only neighbor, 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. (258 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.)
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 reader on the 6.27 JEAN-PAUL DIDIERLAURENT – 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. (256 p.)
Ready player one ERNEST CLINE – Immersing himself in a mid-twentyfirst-century technological 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. (374 p.)
Reckoning : a memoir MAGDA SZUBANSKI – Magda describes her journey of self-discovery 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. (374 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.)
A room with a view E.M. FORSTER - Lucy Honeychurch falls in love while on a visit to Florence and must choose between fulfilling her social role or following her heart. (240 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 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 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.)
The sisters : the saga of the Mitford family MARY S. LOVELL—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. (640p.)
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.)
Small great things JODI PICOULT - 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. (480 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.)
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.)
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.)
Station eleven EMILY ST JOHN MICHAEL - 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. (336 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.)
Stoner JOHN WILLIAMS - 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. (278 p.)
Suite Francaise IRENE NEMIROVSKY - 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. (431 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.)
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.)
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.)
This sweet sickness PATRICIA HIGHSMITH - Obsessed with his love for Annabelle Delaney, David Kelsey tries to break up her marriage and succeeds in accidentally killing her husband. (288 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.)
Three graves full JAMIE MASON - More than a year ago, mild-mannered 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. (306 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.)
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.)
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.)
Truly madly guilty LIANE MORIARTY – 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 (415 p.)
The unbearable lightness of being MILAN KUNDERA – After the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, a married surgeon, Tomas, becomes a window washer while trying to reconcile himself to decisions he and his wife must make about their relationship (320 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 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.)
The unlikely voyage of Jack de Crow A.J. MACKINNON - 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. (356 p.)
Unpolished gem 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 presentday Venice, music weaves through each of these spellbinding true stories. (194 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.)
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 the doves disappeared SOFI OKSANEN — Two former deserters from the Red Army during World War II try to keep their past a secret in 1963 Communist Estonia. A story of occupation, resistance and collaboration in Estonia during and after World War II. (320 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.)
White crocodile K.T. MEDINA - 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. (384 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.)
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.)
The year of magical thinking JOAN DIDION - An autobiographical portrait of marriage and motherhood by the acclaimed author details her struggle to come to terms with life and death, illness, sanity, personal upheaval, and grief. (227p.)
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.)
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.)
rrl.nsw.gov.au/adults/bo ok-club