Click on the book cover to find out more. Also take a look on our Catalogue at the “What’s Hot” section in the the blue menu bar.
Click on the book cover to find out more. Also take a look on our Catalogue at the “What’s Hot” section in the the blue menu bar.
Florence Saint Claire, former child star, generally prefers plants to people. She’s a reluctant member of a musical family with a legendary father, an impossible mother, a sister who can’t keep still and a brother who walks to his own beat.
Albert Flowers is a people person, life rushing at him from all corners, carrying him to weddings and parties and late nights in rooftop bars. (Goodreads.com)
Set in Sydney in the 1990s, The Coconut Children follows two childhood friends who have taken very different paths in life. Told through the stories of 16-year old Vince, who spent two years in ‘juvie’, and Sonny who watches the world go by from her window, this book is a poignant examination of family, violence and surviving the aftershocks of the Vietnam-American War. (Australian Booksellers Association)
From the award winning author of Station Eleven, a captivating novel of money, beauty, white-collar crime, ghosts, and moral compromise in which a woman disappears from a container ship off the coast of Mauritania and a massive Ponzi scheme implodes in New York, dragging countless fortunes with it. (Goodreads)Harry Bosch and LAPD Detective Renee Ballard come together again on the murder case that obsessed Bosch’s mentor, the man who trained him — new from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly. (Goodreads.com)‘If you’re in a bookshop browsing, then A Bookshop In Algiers is for you, by definition. A beautiful little novel about books, history, ambition and the importance of literature to everyone, especially people who are trying to find a voice.’ Nick Hornby In 1936, a young dreamer named Edmond Charlot opened a modest bookshop in Algiers. Once the heart of Algerian cultural life, where Camus launched his first book and the Free French printed propaganda during the war, Charlot’s beloved bookshop has been closed for decades, living on as a government lending library. Now it is to be shuttered forever. But as a young man named Ryad empties it of its books, he begins to understand that a bookshop can be much more than just a shop that sells books. (Goodreads)As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded young woman whose stolen moments reading about the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott helped her to imagine an alternative way of life among the skyscrapers of Manhattan. (Goodreads)
With her father recently moved to a care facility for his worsening dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked. She’s even more shocked at what’s behind it—a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers and miscellaneous junk in the otherwise fastidiously tidy house.
As she picks through the clutter, she finds a loose journal entry in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker. Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected. (Goodreads)Winner of the 2016 Stella Prize and Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction for The Natural Way of Things Charlotte Wood’s The Weekend, in which three friends in their 70s gather for a last weekend at the former holiday home of a mutual friend who has recently died, where they confront betrayals that have lain hidden, and the bond that sustains them, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, for publication in 2020 (Goodreads.com)https://tinyurl.com/vqu7tpaFar beneath the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them. (Goodreads.com)Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of outback Queensland, in this stunning new standalone novel from New York Times bestseller Jane Harper
They are at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family’s quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish. Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he lose hope and walk to his death? Because if he didn’t, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects… (Goodreads.com)A richly illustrated book, We Are Artists celebrates the life and work of fifteen female artists from around the globe and the distinctive mark they made on art. Presented as a collection of exciting biographical stories, each section reveals how the artists unique approach and perspective provided art and society with a new way of seeing things. (Goodreads.com)
Esme Nicoll’s childhood is spent beneath the sorting table in the ‘Scriptorium’ where her father works to compile the Oxford English Dictionary’s first edition. As an adult she maintains a reverence for words, it it’s her own secret dictionary – subversively curated with the help of those on the margins of society – that gives meaning to her own life and womanhood. A gentle yet powerful debut. (Australian Booksellers Association)
Hamnet reveals for the first time in fiction the story of heartbreaking loss which inspired Shakespeare’s most celebrated play, Hamlet. In 1596, a young girl is taken to bed with bubonic fever. Her twin brother Hamnet desperately searches for help, only to succumb to the disease himself. Hamnet is the story of the short life of the famous playwright’s long forgotten son, of his wife and daughters, and a family torn apart by unimaginable grief. (Australian Booksellers Association)
A right-wing US president has withdrawn America from the Middle East and the UN. Daesh has a thoroughfare to the sea and China is Australia’s newest ally. When a bomb goes off in remote Tasmania, Astrid Coleman agrees to return home to help her brother before an upcoming election. But this is no simple task. Her brother and sister are on either side of politics, the community is full of conspiracy theories, and her father is quoting Shakespeare. Only on Bruny does the world seem sane. (goodreads)Beautifully written and well researched Phosphorescence examines the quest for inner strength, the light within us all. We know that being kind and altruistic, talking to people, forging relationships and living with meaning is our best chance at achieving happiness. But how do we retain happiness? By seeking out awe in the natural world Julia Baird has created a comforting, intimate and inspiring mediation on sustaining us when life darkens. (Australian Booksellers Association)In Lionel Shriver’s entertaining send-up of today’s cult of exercise—which not only encourages better health, but now like all religions also seems to promise meaning, social superiority, and eternal life—an aging husband’s sudden obsession with extreme sport makes him unbearable. (Goodreads)In this funny, heartfelt and passionate call to arms, Gabbie Stroud makes a plea to all parents to understand their roles as their children’s lifelong teachers and show how they can best help their kids’ teachers and schools achieve the best results for the next generation of leaders.
So many parents are buying the government line about standardised testing of students and programs like NAPLAN and MySchool, which somehow satisfy the ‘consumer’ in many people as they think they are getting results because of ranking and comparisons. But what these parents don’t seem to realise is what those new ways of assessing students’ skills are actually doing to their kids’ ability to learn the crucial life skills and appreciation for learning that has thus far been the primary aim of teaching.
Ruby has always been the generous mediator among her friends, family and colleagues, which is why they have all turned up to celebrate her 50th birthday. But after a few too many glasses of champers, Ruby’s speech doesn’t exactly go to plan. Instead of delivering the witty and warm words her guests are expecting, Ruby takes her moment in the spotlight to reveal what she really thinks of every one of them.
Too much lip, her old problem from way back. And the older she got, the harder it seemed to get to swallow her opinions. The avalanche of bullshit in the world would drown her if she let it; the least she could do was raise her voice in anger. (Goodreads.com)At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. (Goodreads.com)Far beneath the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them. (Goodreads.com)I’m Aboriginal. I’m just not the Aboriginal person a lot of people want or expect me to be.
What does it mean to be Aboriginal? Why is Australia so obsessed with notions of identity? Anita Heiss, successful author and passionate campaigner for Aboriginal literacy, was born a member of the Wiradjuri nation of central New South Wales, but was raised in the suburbs of Sydney and educated at the local Catholic school. She is Aboriginal – however, this does not mean she likes to go barefoot and, please, don’t ask her to camp in the desert. (Goodreads.com)
BIOGRAPHIES
Growing up, Miranda Tapsell often looked for faces like hers on our screens. There weren’t many. And too often there was a negative narrative around Indigenous lives, and Aboriginal women especially. Now an award-winning actor, she decided to change things herself.
In this engaging and thought-provoking memoir, Miranda Tapsell shares the path she took to create a moving film about reconnection to family and culture. And, like all good storytellers, she holds a mirror up to the society we live in to show the prejudice that too often surfaces. (Goodreads)
An interview with politician, feminist, and champion for social equality Jacinda Ardern. As the fortieth prime minister of New Zealand, Ardern epitomizes the modern leader. This landmark interview series offers encouragement and guidance to graduates, future leaders, and anyone hoping to make a positive impact on the world. (Goodreads)
