Category: READING

Summer Staycation Reads

October 29th, 2020
29th October, 2020.

Moving on to the Summer holidays and we would like to give some recommendations to our staff. It will be an unusual holiday break with no travel for most of you… however we hope to inspire you to go on a “Staycation” and travel to wonderful places through the pages of a good book!

Drama: Click on the book cover to find out more

The bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton returns with All Our Shimmering Skies – a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic. Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain down, motherless Molly Hook, the gravedigger’s daughter, turns once again to the sky for guidance. She carries a stone heart inside a duffel bag next to the map that leads to Longcoat Bob, the deep-country sorcerer who put a curse on her family. By her side are the most unlikely travelling companions: Greta, a razor-tongued actress and Yukio, a fallen Japanese fighter pilot. Run, Molly, run, says the daytime sky. Run to the vine forests. Run to northern Australia’s wild and magical monsoon lands. Run to friendship. Run to love. Run. Because the graverobber’s coming, Molly, and the night-time sky is coming with him. So run, Molly, run. (Goodreads)

Drawing on Maggie O’Farrell’s long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare’s most enigmatic play, HAMNET is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet. (Goodreads)

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass and cedar palace on an island in British Columbia. Jonathan Alkaitis works in finance and owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it’s the beginning of their life together. That same day, Vincent’s half-brother, Paul, scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: “Why don’t you swallow broken glass.” Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune Logistics, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of the Neptune Cumberland. (Goodreads)

This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting Bella is both the most unnerving and intriguing event he has experienced in all his years as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he justify following his heart if it means leading Bella into danger? (Goodreads)

A novel of love, crime, magic, fate and coming of age, set in Brisbane’s violent working class suburban fringe – from one of Australia’s most exciting new writers.

Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It’s not as if Eli’s life isn’t complicated enough already. He’s just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way – not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer. (Goodreads)

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. (Goodreads)

Mourning Thrax’s death, Ankhesenamun tries to find peace again. But as she resumes her normal life, her world is upended by another death — this time, that of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

As Ankhesenamun tries to keep control of her throne and her country, the chief advisors tighten their own hold on power. Stripped of all authority and confined to her chambers, Ankhesenamun finally does the unthinkable — she sends a message to the Hittite king offering the throne to one of his sons. (Goodreads)

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)

The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences

Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she’s accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume a dream long deferred. But she can’t stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London, or their brother, Parvaiz, who’s disappeared in pursuit of his own dream, to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. When he resurfaces half a globe away, Isma’s worst fears are confirmed. (Goodreads)

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen’s most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect. (Goodreads)

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners. (Goodreads)

The captivating and heart-pounding third book in the instant New York Times bestselling Nevermoor series, as heroine Morrigan battles a new evil.Morrigan Crow and her friends have survived their first year as proud scholars of the elite Wundrous Society, helped bring down the nefarious Ghastly Market, and proven themselves loyal to Unit 919. Now Morrigan faces a new, exciting challenge: to master the mysterious Wretched Arts of the Accomplished Wundersmith, and control the power that threatens to consume her. (Goodreads)

Knowing that he will soon die, Albert ‘Poppy’ Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind. (Goodreads)

Conspiracy. Betrayal. Rebellion.
Peace is just another kind of battlefield…

Savine dan Glokta, once Adua’s most powerful investor, finds her judgement, fortune and reputation in tatters. But she still has all her ambitions, and no scruple will be permitted to stand in her way.

For heroes like Leo dan Brock and Stour Nightfall, only happy with swords drawn, peace is an ordeal to end as soon as possible. But grievances must be nursed, power seized and allies gathered first, while Rikke must master the power of the Long Eye . . . before it kills her. (Goodreads)

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)

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. (Goodreads)

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)

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.
One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life. (Goodreads)

Bridge of Clay is about a boy who is caught in the current – of destroying everything he has, to become all he needs to be. He’s a boy in search of greatness, as a cure for memory and tragedy. He builds a bridge to save his family, but also to save himself. It’s an attempt to transcend humanness, to make a single, glorious moment:
A miracle and nothing less. (Goodreads)

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for his door, though he does not know it. He follows a silent siren song, an inexplicable knowledge that he is meant for another place. When he discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his campus library he begins to read, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities, and nameless acolytes. Suddenly a turn of the page brings Zachary to a story from his own childhood impossibly written in this book that is older than he is. (Goodreads)

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War. (Goodreads)

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. She also accuses her husband, Harry, of having an affair, and reads to the audience the evidence she found on his phone that very morning. (Goodreads)

In this follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the author tells the story, based on a true one, of a woman who survives Auschwitz, only to find herself locked away again. (Goodreads)

MYSTERY AND CRIME

Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets in The Survivors, a thrilling mystery by New York Times bestselling author Jane Harper

Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home. (Goodreads)

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. (Goodreads)

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. (Goodreads)

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)

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. 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. 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)

Two teachers discover the body of the school’s unpopular games mistress, shot through the heart from point-blank range. The school is thrown into chaos when the ‘cat’ strikes again, and Julia Upjohn knows that without Poirot’s help she could be next. (Goodreads)

NON-FICTION AND BIOGRAPHIES

The groundbreaking two-term President of Ireland tells the stories of her life

When a young Mary McAleese told a priest that she planned to become a lawyer, the priest dismissed the idea: she knew no one in the law, and she was female. The reality of what she went on to achieve – despite those obstacles, and despite a sectarian attack that forced her family to flee their home – is even more improbable. (Goodreads)

This remarkable book presents a unique portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, drawing on more than twenty years of conversations with Jeffrey Rosen, starting in the 1990s and continuing through the Trump era. Rosen, a veteran legal journalist, scholar, and president of the National Constitution Center, shares with us the justice’s observations on a variety of topics, and her intellect, compassion, sense of humor, and humanity shine through. The affection they have for each other as friends is apparent in their banter and in their shared love for the Constitution–and for opera. (Goodreads)

‘You will not be able to buy a more beautiful book for Christmas for somebody you love’ Chris Evans

A book of hope for uncertain times.

Enter the world of Charlie’s four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons.

The conversations of the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse have been shared thousands of times online, recreated in school art classes, hung on hospital walls and turned into tattoos. In Charlie’s first book, you will find his most-loved illustrations and some new ones too. (Goodreads)

The Inner Self is a book about the ways we hide from the truth about ourselves and the psychological freedom we enjoy when we finally face that most searching question of all: ‘Who am I, really?’

Hugh Mackay explores our ‘top 20’ hiding places – from addiction to materialism, nostalgia to victimhood. He explains how it is our fear of love’s demands that drive us into hiding. (Goodreads)

In Tom Boyce’s extraordinary new book, he writes of his acclaimed and pathfinding work as a developmental pediatrician working with troubled children in child-development research for almost four decades, and explores his major discovery: that certain variant genes can increase a person’s susceptibility to depression, anxiety, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, antisocial, sociopathic, or violent behaviors. Rather than seeing this “risk” gene as a liability, Boyce, through his daring research has recast the way we think of human frailty, and has shown that while these “bad” genes can create problems, they can also, in the right setting and the right environment, result in producing children who not only do better than before, but far exceed their peers. (Goodreads)

There is a voice of longing inside every woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good mothers, daughters, partners, employees, citizens, and friends. We believe all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives, relationships, and world, and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? (Goodreads)

The first Queenslanders to witness the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-20 were serving in the AIF in Europe and the Middle East. On their return, they brought the disease home.

Queenslanders fought the ‘Flu with determination and dignity – and kindness. (Goodreads)

Whether using dried flowers or tiny shells, spaghetti or postage stamps, Jeannie Baker draws from the world around her to make work that is singularly beautiful and imaginative. Incorporating a wide range of textures, her arresting collage pieces have earned her international acclaim. Now she shares her secrets and encourages readers to get creative: each of the four main sections in Playing with Collage presents an abstract collage by the artist and offers suggestions and starting points for anyone aspiring to master the art. (Goodreads)

The New York Times bestselling book from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—“a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fascinating life of one of our generation’s most influential voices in both law and public opinion” (Harper’s Bazaar). (Goodreads)

MIRANDA TAPSELL was born in Darwin and her people are the Larrakia. She grew up in Kakadu National Park and began performing at the age of seven. At 16, she won the Bell Shakespeare Company regional performance scholarship. She has her own podcast on BuzzFeed, Pretty for an Aboriginal, with Nakkiah Lui, which rocks the traditional perceptions of Indigenous Australia and challenges rigid mindsets of what women of colour can and cannot do. Top End Girl is her literary debut. (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. It was stolen moments spent with the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott that helped her to imagine an alternative way of life. Trapped as a teenager in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage to a man she barely knew, the tension between Deborah’s desires and her responsibilities as a good Satmar girl grew more explosive until she gave birth at nineteen and realized that, for the sake of herself and her son, she had to escape. (Goodreads)

Kids with Tricky Behaviours don’t need to be ‘fixed’ because they aren’t broken. They do, however, need to be shown ways to play to their own strengths and to learn a range of ways to interact with the world. They need to be shown how to flourish and thrive, and parents are the best people to do this.

In this revised and updated edition of his bestselling book, Tricky Kids, leading Australian adolescent psychologist Andrew Fuller delves deeply into all the different types of tricky behaviour displayed by children of all ages. Using the latest thinking and developments in child psychology, he explains the most common reasons why children can display confronting behaviour and outlines practical steps you can take to help show them the way to live harmoniously with you and others. (Booktopia)

Over the last decade, we have become better at knowing what brings us contentment, well-being and joy. We know, for example, that there are a few core truths to science of happiness. We know that being kind and altruistic makes us happy, that turning off devices, talking to people, forging relationships, living with meaning and delving into the concerns of others offer our best chance at achieving happiness. But how do we retain happiness? It often slips out of our hands as quickly as we find it. So, when we are exposed to, or learn, good things, how do we continue to burn with them? (Goodreads)

Spelling can be a source of anxiety for school children and working professionals alike. Yet the spelling of words in English is not as random or chaotic as it is often perceived to be; rather, it is a system based on both meaning and a fascinating linguistic history. Misty Adoniou’s public articles on the processes of teaching and learning spelling have garnered an overwhelming response from concerned parents and teachers looking for effective solutions to the problems they face in teaching English spelling to children. Spelling It Out aims to ease anxiety and crush the myth that good spelling comes naturally. (Goodreads)

‘I just want to warn you. You’re going to dive to the end of the cave. You’re going to see these kids. They’re all looking healthy and happy and smiley. Then, you’re going to swim away, and they’re probably all going to die.’

In June 2018, for seventeen days, the world watched and held its breath as the Wild Boars soccer team were trapped deep in a cave in Thailand. Marooned beyond flooded cave passages after unexpected rains, they were finally rescued, one-by-one, against almost impossible odds, by an international cave-diving team which included Australians Dr Richard Harris and Dr Craig Challen. (Goodreads)

In these pages, some of today’s most wonderful culture-makers—writers, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and philosophers—reflect on the joys of reading, how books broaden and deepen human experience, and the ways in which the written word has formed their own character. On the page facing each letter, an illustration by a celebrated illustrator or graphic artist presents that artist’s visual response. (Goodreads)

NEW STUDY RESOURCES

Like most of us, Damon Gameau has spent most of his adult years overwhelmed into inaction by the problem of climate change and its devastating effects on the planet. But when Damon became a father, he knew he couldn’t continue to look away. So he decided to do what he does best, and tell a story. And the story became an imagining of what the world could look like in 2040, if we all decided to start doing things differently, right now. (Goodreads)

Organisational Behaviour 6e and its rich suite of digital educational resources leads the market in this exciting field. Now in its sixth edition, the engaging text has been developed to satisfy the evolving needs of learners and academics with its offerings of contemporary theory and research, real-world examples, learning resources and visually stimulating design. (booktopia)

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 artist’s unique approach and perspective provided art and society with a new way of seeing things. (Goodreads)

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE – CUSTURAL AND HISTORIC RESOUCES

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)

Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating, and storing — behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie. Almost all the evidence in Dark Emu comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources. (Goodreads)

This is the first book of its kind in Australia: a history of Aboriginal campsites. This is also the first guidebook to the location and features of the numerous Aboriginal camps that flourished in and around Brisbane from convict times to in some cases as late as the 1950s. Many of Brisbane’s suburbs trace their names, parks and key events to these former campsites. This book focuses on 15 key areas, and includes a full suburban listing at the back. (Goodreads)

‘As uncomfortable as it is, we need to reckon with our history. On January 26, no Australian can really look away.’

Since publishing his critically acclaimed, Walkley Award-winning, bestselling memoir Talking to My Country in early 2016, Stan Grant has been crossing the country, talking to huge crowds everywhere about how racism is at the heart of our history and the Australian dream. But Stan knows this is not where the story ends. (Goodreads)

It is now over 250 years since James Cook and his crew set sail in the Endeavour to explore the Pacific. In 1770 they reached the east coast of a continent that has been inhabited for more than 65,000 years by many Indigenous groups with different languages and diverse cultures. Cook’s landing marked the beginning of a history that still has repercussions today, a history that both unites and divides Australia and highlights the continuing need for reconciliation. (booktopia)

Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards for Dark Emu and now he has brought together the research and compelling first person accounts in a book for younger readers. Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived – a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent. (Goodreads)

Tourism Australia statistics show that many overseas tourists, as well as Australians, are keen to learn more about Australia’s first peoples. And while the Indigenous tourism industry continues to grow, no comprehensive travel guide is currently available. (Goodreads)

In 1840, Brisbane was the furthest outpost of settled Australia. On all sides, it was embedded in a richly Indigenous world. Over the next few years, mostly from across New South Wales northern plains, a large push of pastoralists thundered into the Darling Downs, Lockyer and much of southern Queensland – establishing huge sheep stations. The violence that erupted welded many of the tribal groups into an alliance that by 1842 was working to halt the advance.

The Battle of One Tree Hill tells the story of one of the most audacious stands against this influx. It concerns actions engineered by a father and son, Moppy and Multuggerah. In 1843, this culminated in an ingenious ambush and one of the first solid defeats of white settlement in Queensland. (Goodreads)

Pathfinder – A list of AHS library resources: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Culture Resources (Click link below)

AHS Pathfinder-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Culture Resources

Full digital copies of The Australian, The Courier Mail and other newspapers form News Corp
(available on the AHS campus only)

To access digital newspapers, click Library Catalogue icon on Moodle OR https://allhallows.softlinkhosting.com.au/
Scroll down to find the digital newspapers as below:

Online copies of CHOICE magazine at: icon on library catalogue home page, scroll down (maximum 5 users at any one time) or go to https://www.choice.com.au/ Username: library@ahs.qld.edu.au Password: choice

ALSO TAKE A LOOK ON THE CATALOGUE AT THE “WHAT’S HOT” SECTION IN THE BLUE MENU BAR.

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Spring Holiday Reading

September 3rd, 2020
Great reads in the McAuley library ready for the September Holidays.

24th August, 2020

Battle Born
(Elementals #3)
by Amie Kaufman
Though Anders and his friends have delayed a war between ice wolves and scorch dragons, their mission is far from over. With adults on both sides looking for them, they’ve sought refuge in Cloudhaven, a forbidden stronghold that could hold the key to saving their home. (Goodreads)

Ice Wolves
(Elementals #1)
by Amie Kaufman

Everyone in Vallen knows that ice wolves and scorch dragons are sworn enemies who live deeply separate lives.

So when twelve-year-old orphan Anders takes one elemental form and his twin sister, Rayna, takes another, he wonders whether they are even related. Still, whether or not they’re family, Rayna is Anders’s only true friend. She’s nothing like the brutal, cruel dragons who claimed her as one of their own and stole her away. (Goodreads)

The Secrets of Magnolia Moon
by Edwina Wyatt

Magnolia Moon is very good at keeping secrets.

She knows just what to do with them, and has a way of talking to the jumpy ones to stop them causing trouble.

Which is why people are always leaning in and whispering:

“Can I tell you a secret?”

Edwina Wyatt introduces a character whose irrepressible joy and vivid imagination will remind readers just how much can happen in a year of being nine. (Goodreads)

Kristy’s Great Idea
(Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels #1)
by Raina Telgemeier
Ann M. Martin

In this new graphic novel edition of the very first Baby-Sitters Club book, Raina Telgemeier captures all the drama of the original in warm, spunky illustrations. Witness Kristy’s eureka moment, when she gets the idea for a “baby-sitters club” and enlists her best friends, shy Mary Anne and artistic Claudia, in an exciting new venture. (Goodreads)

Guts
(Smile #3)
by Raina Telgemeier

Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. Her mom has one, too, so it’s probably just a bug. Raina eventually returns to school, where she’s dealing with the usual highs and lows: friends, not-friends, and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross-out session. (Goodreads)

Drama
by Raina Telgemeier

PLACES, EVERYONE!

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school’s production of Moon Over Mississippi, she can’t really sing. Instead she’s the set designer for the drama department stage crew, and this year she’s determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn’t know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together?

Worse Things
by Sally Murphy

Worse Things follows the lives of three main characters: Blake, an Aussie Rules football player who suffers a devastating injury; Jolene, a hockey player who hates the game and and is grieving over the recent death of her father; and Amed, a soccer-loving, non-English speaking orphan who feels like an outsider since arriving in Australia after being raised in a refugee camp. (Goodreads)

Under Suspicion
(Friday Barnes #2)
by R.A. Spratt

Who knew boarding school could be this perilous!

When Friday Barnes cracked the case of Highcrest Academy’s mysterious swamp-yeti, the last thing she expected was to be placed under arrest. Now with the law on her back and Ian Wainscott in her face, Friday is not so sure boarding school was the smartest choice. (Goodreads)

The Apothecary
(The Apothecary #1)
by Maile Meloy and
Ian Schoenherr

It’s 1952 and the Scott family has just moved from Los Angeles to London. Here, fourteen-year-old Janie meets a mysterious apothecary and his son, Benjamin Burrows—a fascinating boy who’s not afraid to stand up to authority and dreams of becoming a spy. When Benjamin’s father is kidnapped, Janie and Benjamin must uncover the secrets of the apothecary’s sacred book, the Pharmacopoeia, in order to find him, all while keeping it out of the hands of their enemies—Russian spies in possession of nuclear weapons. (Goodreads)

Everything I’ve Never Said
by Samantha Wheeler

Ava would like nothing more than to tell her family she loves them, particularly her big sister, Nic. But Ava has Rett syndrome – she can’t talk, can’t nod her head, can’t even point at a communication card. She understands everything, but no one understands her. (Goodreads)

Being Brave: A novel and a guide
by Hester Leung,

What do you do when the voice inside tells you you’re wrong? You can’t do that? Or you say something silly and the other kids laugh at you?

Ellie and Alyssa have been best friends since pre-school. One chatty, one shy, one adventurous, the other considered, one Australian, one with Chinese heritage, both supportive and giving. It’s easy together. (Goodreads)

The Little White Horse
By: Elizabeth Goudge

For a fleeting instant Maria thought she saw a little white horse with a flowing mane and tail, head raised, poised, halted in mid-flight, as though it had seen her and was glad.’ The beautiful valley of Moonacre is shadowed by the memory of the Moon Princess and the mysterious little white horse. When Maria Merryweather comes there on a visit she finds herself involved with an ancient feud. (Goodreads)

Graphic Novels

Mary Anne Saves the Day
(Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels #3)
by Raina Telgemeier
Ann M. Martin

Who would have guessed that when the BSC girls get in a huge fight, it’s shy and quiet Mary Anne who manages to save their friendship?When a terrible fight breaks out among the four Baby-Sitters Club friends, Mary Anne is left to her own devices. She has to sit by herself at lunch, make new friends, and deal with her overprotective father without advice from the BSC gang. (Goodreads)

Ghosts
by Raina Telgemeier

Catrina and her family are moving to the coast of Northern California because her little sister, Maya, is sick. Cat isn’t happy about leaving her friends for Bahía de la Luna, but Maya has cystic fibrosis and will benefit from the cool, salty air that blows in from the sea. As the girls explore their new home, a neighbor lets them in on a secret: There are ghosts in Bahía de la Luna. (Goodreads)

Just Because they are so GOOD

Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter
by Adeline Yen Mah

This is the story of a Chinese woman who suffered appalling emotional deprivation and rejection by her family as a child growing up in China and Hong Kong in the 40s and 50s, and of its consequences in her adult life. Above which she rose to make a happy marriage and become an extremely successful doctor and business woman in the USA. (Goodreads)

Sophie’s Secret War: A Second World War Girl’s Diary, 1939-1940
(My Story: Girls)
by Jill Atkins

In 1939 at the start of the war, Sophie becomes a messenger for a resistance group in Northern France. But as the German invaders overwhelm the British forces on the French coast, she finds herself more deeply involved with the Resistance – in a dangerous plan to save a young Scottish soldier. (Goodreads)

White Bird
(Wonder)
by R.J. Palacio

A Wonder story.

In R. J. Palacio’s collection of stories Auggie & Me, which expands on characters in Wonder, readers were introduced to Julian’s grandmother, Grandmère. This is Grandmère’s story as a young Jewish girl hidden away by a family in Nazi-occupied France during World War II told in graphic novel form. (Goodreads)

Akarnae
(The Medoran Chronicles #1)
by Lynette Noni

With just one step, sixteen-year-old Alexandra Jennings’s world changes—literally.

Dreading her first day at a new school, Alex is stunned when she walks through a doorway and finds herself stranded in Medora, a fantasy world full of impossibilities. Desperate to return home, she learns that only a man named Professor Marselle can help her… but he’s missing. (Goodreads)

The Glimme
by Emily Rodda
Marc McBride

Lone Annie sees dragons in your future. She sees giants. She sees fire and water. She sees death. Finn’s life in the village of Wichant is hard. Only his drawings of the wild coastline, with its dragon shaped clouds and headlands that look like giants, make him happy. Then the strange housekeeper from a mysterious clifftop mansion sees his talent and buys him for a handful of gold and then reveals to him seven extraordinary paintings. Finn thinks the paintings must be pure fantasy: such amazing scenes and creatures cannot be real! (Goodreads)

Scorch Dragons
(Elementals #2)
by Amie Kaufman

The struggle for power heats up in book two of this heart-stopping adventure series about siblings with magical shapeshifter powers, from New York Times bestselling author Amie Kaufman.

After the fateful battle between the ice wolves and the scorch dragons, Anders and his twin sister, Rayna, have been reunited. But there’s no time to celebrate. (Goodreads)

The Thing About Oliver
by Deborah Kelly

Sometimes I feel just like the glass in my fish tank— people look right through me.

Twelve-year-old Tilly dreams of becoming a marine scientist, but she doesn’t even own a swimsuit. She lives in a drought- stricken town with her mum and younger brother Oliver, who is autistic.

Oliver’s meltdowns are making life unbearable. He needs so many different kinds of therapy that there’s never any time—or money—left over for swimming lessons. Tilly knows Oliver’s needs have to come first, but it’s hard feeling invisible all the time. (Goodreads)

Claudia and Mean Janine
(Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels #4)
by Raina Telgemeier

Claudia and her sister, Janine, may as well be from two different planets. Claudia, who pays more attention to her art than her grades, feels she can’t compete with her perfect sister. Janine studies nonstop, makes straight As, and even takes college-level courses. The girls are nothing alike, and they can’t agree on anything. While Janine devotes all her time to working on her Web site, The Baby-sitters Club is busy with their new summer play group. (Goodreads)

The Truth About Stacey
(Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels #2)
by Raina Telgemeier
Ann M. Martin

Poor Stacey. She just moved to a new town, is still coming to terms with her diabetes, and is facing baby-sitting problems left and right. Fortunately, Stacey has three new friends — Kristy, Claudia, and Mary Anne. Together they’re the BSC, and they will deal with whatever’s thrown their way…even if it’s a rival baby-sitting club! (Goodreads)

Once Upon a Slime
by Andy Griffiths,
Terry Denton

“Have you ever wondered where ideas come from and how stories are made?

Would you like to know the true stories behind some of Andy and Terry’s books and characters?

Are you looking for simple, practical and inspiring writing activities?

Would you like to discover 45 great ways to have fun with words and pictures? (Goodreads)

Two Wolves
by Tristan Bancks

One afternoon, police officers show up at Ben Silver’s front door. Minutes after they leave, his parents arrive home. Ben and his little sister Olive are bundled into the car and told they’re going on a holiday. But are they? (Goodreads)

Little Women
(Little Women #1)
by Louisa May Alcott

Grown-up Meg, tomboyish Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. The four March sisters couldn’t be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. Whether they’re putting on a play, forming a secret society, or celebrating Christmas, there’s one thing they can’t help wondering: Will Father return home safely?(Goodreads)

Because it is on NETFLIX

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Staff Holiday Reads for Spring

September 1st, 2020
Drama: Click on the book cover to find out more

A warm-hearted novel from the author of Walking on Trampolines about music, grief, relationships, gardens, love, laughter and family.

Florence Saint Claire is a loner. Albert Flowers is a social butterfly. Good friends who think they know each other.

But, somewhere between who they are, and who people think they are, lies The Best Kind of Beautiful. (Booktopia)

Revisit the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games. On returning to the world of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins said, “With this book, I wanted to explore the state of nature, who we are, and what we perceive is required for our survival. The reconstruction period ten years after the war, commonly referred to as the Dark Days-as the country of Panem struggles back to its feet-provides fertile ground for characters to grapple with these questions and thereby define their views of humanity. (Goodreads)

The Amarna Age book No. 2

Blending history and fantasy, The Amarna Age series is set in 18th Dynasty Egypt where the old gods have been worshipped for thousands of years and magic is a matter of belief. For readers of dark fantasy who enjoy an historical setting. 
(Goodreads)

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world–a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

From an internationally acclaimed novelist, the suspenseful and heartbreaking story of a family ripped apart by secrets and driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences.

This story, full of beauty and hope, is based on years of interviews author Heather Morris conducted with real-life Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz- Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov. It is heart-wrenching, illuminating, and unforgettable. (Goodreads)

Winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award
Knowing that he will soon die, Albert ‘Poppy’ Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind. (Booktopia)

Coming soon! Available October

The bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton, returns with All Our Shimmering Skies – a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic.

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.
Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it. (Goodreads)

‘A complex, big-hearted, multi-generational Australian epic’ (Good Weekend)

We were all of us changed through him.

The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules. A family of ramshackle tragedy – their mother is dead, their father has fled – they love and fight, and learn to reckon with the adult world.

It is Clay, the quiet one, who will build a bridge; for his family, for his past, for his sins. He builds a bridge to transcend humanness. To survive.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War. (Goodreads)

The sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz
In 1942 Cilka Klein is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. The Commandant at Birkenau, Schwarzhuber, notices her long beautiful hair, and forces her separation from the other women prisoners. Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly given, equals survival.

Those in need of peace will find it between the covers of this elegant picture book for adults and children
(The New York Times)

‘Feeling a little blue? Meet the new Winnie the Pooh.’ The Daily Mail

‘A wonderful work of art and a wonderful window into the human heart’ Richard Curtis. (Goodreads)

A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year. A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year. (Goodreads)

Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive but not how to live.

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. (Goodreads)

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humour and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
(Goodreads)

Delightful, engaging, and entertaining, and with a dazzling gallery of characters, Emma is arguably Austen’s most well-loved social comedy.

What do you do when you’re told you’ve got terminal cancer at 50? Take up crochet, get religion and bow out gracefully? Or upend your life and spend every remaining minute exploring new pleasures?
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. (Penguin)

Mystery and Crime

A beautiful new Vintage Classics edition to celebrate the 15th anniversary of this wise, blackly funny, radically imaginative novel. It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears’ house. Its eyes were closed. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing a cat in a dream. But the dog was not running or asleep. The dog was dead. This is Christopher’s story. There are also no lies in this story because Christopher can’t tell lies. Christopher does not like strangers or the colours yellow or brown or being touched. On the other hand, he knows all the countries in the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7507. When Christopher decides to find out who killed the neighbour’s dog, his mystery story becomes more complicated than he could have ever predicted. (Penguin)

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)

Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of outback Queensland. They are at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last chance 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. (Book cover)

Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Two teachers discover the body of the school’s unpopular games mistress, shot through the heart from point-blank range. The school is thrown into chaos when the ‘cat’ strikes again, and Julia Upjohn knows that without Poirot’s help she could be next. (Goodreads)

New in Non-Fiction and Biographies

Coming soon! Launching in October 2020
When a young Mary McAleese told a priest that she planned to become a lawyer, the priest dismissed the idea: she knew no one in the law, and she was female. The reality of what she went on to achieve – despite those obstacles, and despite a sectarian attack that forced her family to flee their home – is even more improbable.
In this luminous memoir, Mary McAleese traces that astonishing arc: from the tight streets of north Belfast, to a professorship in Dublin while still in her twenties, behind-the-scenes work on the peace process, and two triumphant terms as President of Ireland.

Queensland was one of the last places in the world to suffer from the ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic of 1918-1920. This anthology of short stories by various writers about the ‘Spanish Flu’ epidemic in Queensland is based on real people in real places.

An expansive collection of love letters to books, libraries, and reading, from a wonderfully eclectic array of thinkers and creators.
In these pages, some of today’s most wonderful culture-makers―writers, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and philosophers―reflect on the joys of reading, how books broaden and deepen human experience, and the ways in which the written word has formed their own character. On the page facing each letter, an illustration by a celebrated illustrator or graphic artist presents that artist’s visual response. (Amazon)

Celebrated motivational speaker and YouTube sensation Lizzie Velasquez shows us how we can learn to accept all parts of ourselves and others to create a culture of kindness and a more compassionate world.
Potter Library 177.7 VEL

Why some children struggle and how all can thrive.

From one of the world’s foremost researchers and pioneers of paediatric health—a book that fully explores a revolutionary discovery about childhood development, parenting, and the key to helping all children find happiness and success.

His work has revealed there are two different kinds of children: the “dandelion” child (hardy, resilient, healthy), able to survive and flourish under most circumstances, and the “orchid” child (sensitive, susceptible, fragile) who, given the right support, can thrive as much, if not more, than other children. (Goodreads)

In June 2018, for 17 days, the world watched and held its breath as the Wild Boar soccer team were trapped deep in a cave in Thailand. Marooned beyond flooded cave passages after unexpected rains, they were finally rescued, one-by-one, against almost impossible odds, by an international cave-diving team which included Australians Dr Richard Harris and Dr Craig Challen.

Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for precolonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating and storing – behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Almost all the evidence comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources. (Goodreads)

On awe wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark. A beautiful, intimate and inspiring investigation into how we can find and nurture within ourselves that essential quality of internal happiness – the ‘light within’ that Julia Baird calls ‘phosphorescence’ – which will sustain us even through the darkest times. (Goodreads)

Spelling It Out aims to ease anxiety and crush the myth that good spelling comes naturally. Good spelling comes from good teaching. Based on Misty Adoniou’s extensive research into spelling learning and instruction, this book encourages children and adults to nurture a curiosity about words, discover their history and, in so doing, understand the logic behind the way they are spelled. (Booktopia)

Over the course of a 40-year career, Jeannie Baker has perfected the art of collage in the creation of picture-book classics such as Where the Forest Meets the Sea and Window, a Boston Globe-Horn Honor Book. Her stunning pieces, devised by assembling all sorts of different textures, are known all around the globe. Whether it’s dried flowers or tiny shells, spaghetti or postage stamps, she uses the world around her to make work that is astonishingly beautiful and deeply creative. (Goodreads)

When Jeremy Bentham proposed that government should run “for the greatest benefit of the greatest number,” he posed two problems: what is happiness and how can we measure it? With the rise of positive psychology, freakonimics, behavioural economics, endless TED talks, the happiness manifesto, the Happiness Index, the tyranny of customer service, the emergence of the quantified self movement, we have become a culture obsessed with measuring our supposed satisfaction. (Goodreads)

New Study Resources

This major new biography of Mao uses extensive Russian documents previously unavailable to biographers to reveal surprising details about Mao’s rise to power and leadership in China.(Goodreads)

Philip was a genius of extraordinary versatility. Inheriting a kingdom near to collapse, he made Macedonia the greatest military power in the Western world and left to his son Alexander the strongest state in Eastern Europe. This book gives full attention to the Macedonian state and the Macedonian people who made Philip’s success possible, and to the high level of culture and of artistic skills revealed by recent archaeological discoveries. (Goodreads)

This book challenges long-established views that Mao Zedong became Chinese Communist Party leader during the Long March (1934-1935) and that by 1935 the CCP was independent of the Comintern in Moscow. The result is a critique not only of official Chinese historiography but also of Western scholarship, which all future histories of the rise of the PRC will need to take into account. (Goodreads)

Until recently, popular biographers and most scholars viewed Alexander the Great as a genius with a plan, a romantic figure pursuing his vision of a united world. His dream was at times characterized as a benevolent interest in the brotherhood of man, sometimes as a brute interest in the exercise of power. Green, a Cambridge-trained classicist who is also a novelist, portrays Alexander as both a complex personality and a single-minded general, a man capable of such diverse expediencies as patricide or the massacre of civilians. (Goodreads)

2040 – a meticulously researched plea for the adoption of community-building, energy-generating, forest-renewing, ocean-replenishing measures that science tells us will reset our planet’s health, drive our economies and improve lives across the globe. (Dymocks) Potter Library 640.28 GAM

Also available on DVD from Potter Library

Alexander the Great, arguably the most exciting figure from antiquity, waged war as a Homeric hero and lived as one, conquering native peoples and territories on a superhuman scale. From the time he invaded Asia in 334 to his death in 323, he expanded the Macedonian empire from Greece in the west to Asia Minor, the Levant, Egypt, Central Asia and “India” (Pakistan and Kashmir) in the east. (Goodreads)

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 artist’s unique approach and perspective provided art and society with a new way of seeing things. (Goodreads)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People – cultural and history resources

The story of an urban-based high achieving Aboriginal woman working to break down stereotypes and build bridges between black and white Australia.

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? (Goodreads)

Potter Library – 305.89 HEI

Welcome to Country is essential reading for every young Australian. The chapters cover prehistory, post-colonial history, language, kinship, knowledge, art, performance, storytelling, native title, the Stolen Generations, making a rightful place for First Australians and looking to the future for Indigenous Australia. This book is for the new Australian generations and works towards rectifying the wrongs of this country’s past. (Publisher) 305.89 LAN

In this book, Australia Day, his long-awaited follow up to Talking to My Country, Stan talks about our country, about who we are as a nation, about the indigenous struggle for belonging and identity in Australia, and what it means to be Australian. A sad, wise, beautiful, reflective and troubled book, Australia Day asks the questions that have to be asked, that no else seems to be asking. Who are we? What is our country? How do we move forward from here? (Goodreads0. Potter Library 305.899 GRA

It is now over 250 years since James Cook and his crew set sail in the Endeavour to explore the Pacific. In 1770 they reached the east coast of a continent that has been inhabited for more than 65,000 years by many Indigenous groups with different languages and diverse cultures. Cook’s landing marked the beginning of a history that still has repercussions today, a history that both unites and divides Australia and highlights the continuing need for reconciliation. Colony explores the immediate and far-reaching impact of British colonisation of Australia through historical, twentieth-century and contemporary art. Through 1000 essential pieces of our cultural heritage, this book highlights the confronting and complex perspectives of the shared history of First Peoples and European settlers. (Amazon)

This is the first book of its kind in Australia: a history of Aboriginal campsites. This is also the first guidebook to the location and features of the numerous Aboriginal camps that flourished in and around Brisbane from convict times to in some cases as late as the 1950s. Many of Brisbane’s suburbs trace their names, parks and key events to these former campsites. This book focuses on 15 key areas, and includes a full suburban listing at the back. Potter Library 994.3 KER. (Goodreads)

Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards for Dark Emu and now he has brought together the research and compelling first person accounts in a book for younger readers. Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. (Goodreads.)

Deep Time Dreaming is about a slow shift in national consciousness. It explores what it means to live in a place of great antiquity, with its complex questions of ownership and identity. It brings to life the deep time dreaming that has changed the way many Australians relate to their continent and its enduring, dynamic human history. (Goodreads)

In 1840, Brisbane was the furthest outpost of settled Australia. On all sides, it was embedded in a richly Indigenous world. Over the next few years, mostly from across New South Wales northern plains, a large push of pastoralists thundered into the Darling Downs, Lockyer and much of southern Queensland – establishing huge sheep stations. The violence that erupted welded many of the tribal groups into an alliance that by 1842 was working to halt the advance. (Booktopia) Potter Library 994.33 KER

Pathfinder – A list of AHS library resources: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Culture Resources  (Click link below)

AHS Pathfinder-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Culture Resources

Full digital copies of The Australian, The Courier Mail and other newspapers form News Corp
(available on the AHS campus only)

To access digital newspapers, click Library Catalogue icon on Moodle OR https://allhallows.softlinkhosting.com.au/
Scroll down to find the digital newspapers as below:

Online copies of CHOICE magazine at: icon on library catalogue home page, scroll down (maximum 5 users at any one time) or go to https://www.choice.com.au/  Username: library@ahs.qld.edu.au Password: choice

ALSO TAKE A LOOK ON THE CATALOGUE AT THE “WHAT’S HOT” SECTION IN THE BLUE MENU BAR.

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Grow Your Mind – Spring Holiday Reads

August 21st, 2020
21st August, 2020

Holiday’s are fast approaching for September 2020. Scroll through the new books we have in the Potter Library to keep your mind growing through the spring break. Some of these books are “oldies but goodies” and we are always purchasing new versions.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
by Suzanne Collins

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. (Goodreads)

Breaking Dawn
(The Twilight Saga #4)
by Stephenie Meyer

“Don’t be afraid,” I murmured. “We belong together.”
I was abruptly overwhelmed by the truth of my own words.
This moment was so perfect, so right, there was no way to doubt it.
His arms wrapped around me,
holding me against him….
It felt like every nerve ending in my body was a live wire.
“Forever,” he agreed.

Twilight
(The Twilight Saga #1)
by Stephenie Meyer

About three things I was absolutely positive.

First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him—and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.

Deep Water
by Patricia Highsmith

In Deep Water, set in the quiet, small town of Little Wesley, Patricia Highsmith has created a vicious and suspenseful tale of love gone sour.

Vic and Melinda Van Allen’s loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinda is allowed to take any number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family. Eventually, Vic can no longer suppress his jealousy and tries to win back his wife by asserting himself through a tall tale of murder—one that soon comes true.

The End of the World Is Bigger than Love
by Davina Bell

She said we didn’t know what the world out there had become. We had been alone there so long on that tiny island, in that tiny church.
But in the night, I couldn’t bear it.
My chest beat like wings.

Identical twin sisters Summer and Winter live alone on a remote island, sheltered from a destroyed world. They survive on rations stockpiled by their father and spend their days deep in their mother’s collection of classic literature—until a mysterious stranger upends their carefully constructed reality.

How to Build a Girl
(How to Build a Girl #1)
by Caitlin Moran

What do you do in your teenage years when you realize what your parents taught you wasn’t enough? You must go out and find books and poetry and pop songs and bad heroes—and build yourself.

It’s 1990. Johanna Morrigan, fourteen, has shamed herself so badly on local TV that she decides that there’s no point in being Johanna anymore and reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde—fast-talking, hard-drinking Gothic hero and full-time Lady Sex Adventurer.

Let Me Whisper You My Story
by Moya Simons

From the author of Hello God comes a moving story about the impact of war on ordinary people.

Rachel is German and Jewish and living in Leipzig,Germany. Life is good, and revolves around Sabbath meals shared with her happy family.With the outbreak of World War II, their lives are changed. the family are forced to move from their comfortable home into cramped housing, and when the Nazis arrive to finally take the family away they don’t know what is to become of them.

The Titan’s Curse
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3)
by Rick Riordan

It’s not everyday you find yourself in combat with a half-lion, half-human.

But when you’re the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive…

Yes No Maybe So
by Becky Albertalli
Aisha Saeed

New York Times bestselling authors Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed have crafted a resonant, funny, and memorable story about the power of love and resistance.

YES
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone), Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.

The Book of Chance
by Sue Whiting

Chance is in Year 7 and thinks she has it all – a loving mother, dog Tiges, best friend and almost-sister next door. But when a reality TV team makes over her house, she discovers newspaper cuttings from the past that cause her to question the world as she knows it and everyone in it. Then she finds herself caught between two realities, identities and worlds. Face-to-face with the truth, Chance has a very difficult decision to make, which almost splits her in two.

Eclipse
(The Twilight Saga #3)
by Stephenie Meyer

“BELLA?”
Edward’s soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again.
This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine – like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us.

Cilka’s Journey
(The Tattooist of Auschwitz #2)
by Heather Morris
In this follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the author tells the story, based on a true one, of a woman who survives Auschwitz, only to find herself locked away again.

Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers. But Cilka is one of the many women who is sentenced to a labor camp on charges of having helped the Nazis–with no consideration of the circumstances Cilka and women like her found themselves in as they struggled to survive.

The Dog Runner
by Bren MacDibble
From the author of the multi-award-winning and bestselling How To Bee comes an intense and thrilling new adventure.

‘We’re gonna starve if we stay here,’ Emery said. ‘If we’re gonna go, best go now.’
And he said it like going was something easy. Like all we have to do is walk away.

Ella and her brother Emery are alone in a city that’s starving to death. If they are going to survive, they must get away, upcountry, to find Emery’s mum.

The January Stars
by Kate Constable

When twelve-year old Clancy and her fourteen-year-old sister, Tash, visit their Pa at his aged-care facility, they have no idea that the three of them will soon set out on an intrepid adventure.

Along the way there are many challenges for Tash and Clancy to overcome and in the process, they discover their own resourcefulness and resilience and demonstrate their heartfelt love for their grandfather.

Missing
by Sue Whiting

What do you hope for when there is no hope? In search of this answer, award-winning Australian author Sue Whiting delivers a confronting mystery for younger readers.

Mackenzie da Luca’s mother is missing – she’s vanished without a trace in the jungles of Panama. Now, 116 days later Mackenzie and her dad are in those same jungles. Her dad is desperate to find out what’s happened to his wife. And Mackenzie is desperate to make sure he doesn’t …

Son of the Hittites
(The Amarna Age #2)
by Kylie Quillinan

Mourning Thrax’s death, Ankhesenamun tries to find peace again. But as she resumes her normal life, her world is upended by another death — this time, that of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

As Ankhesenamun tries to keep control of her throne and her country, the chief advisors tighten their own hold on power. Stripped of all authority and confined to her chambers, Ankhesenamun finally does the unthinkable — she sends a message to the Hittite king offering the throne to one of his sons.

When the Ground Is Hard
by Malla Nunn

Edgar Award nominee stuns in this heartrending tale set in a Swaziland boarding school where two girls of different castes bond over a shared copy of Jane Eyre.

Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school is going to be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn’t pray and defies teachers’ orders.

The Yield
by Tara June Winch

The yield in English is the reaping, the things that man can take from the land. In the language of the Wiradjuri yield is the things you give to, the movement, the space between things: baayanha.

Knowing that he will soon die, Albert ‘Poppy’ Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered.

The Book of Life
(All Souls Trilogy #3)
by Deborah Harkness

The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies.

New Moon
(The Twilight Saga #2)
by Stephenie Meyer

I knew we were both in mortal danger. Still, in that instant, I felt well. Whole. I could feel my heart racing in my chest, the blood pulsing hot and fast through my veins again. My lungs filled deep with the sweet scent that came off his skin. It was like there had never been any hole in my chest. I was perfect – not healed, but as if there had never been a wound in the first place.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

Emma
by Jane Austen

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen’s most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.

Ghost Bird
by Lisa Fuller

‘Remember daughter, the world is a lot bigger than anyone knows. There are things that science may never explain. Maybe some things that shouldn’t be explained.’Stacey and Laney are twins – mirror images of each other – and yet they’re as different as the sun and the moon. Stacey works hard at school, determined to get out of their small town. Laney skips school and sneaks out of the house to meet her boyfriend.

King’s Cage
(Red Queen #3)
by Victoria Aveyard
In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl’s spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?

Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal.

The Tell
by Martin Chatterton

Rey Tanic is not like other 14 year olds. His dad is a mafia boss. His dad is also in jail. When Rey’s life explodes, every decision he makes will shape the rest of his life. How far does the apple really fall from the tree?

Action, crime and intense family drama combine to create a powerful story in the vein of Two Wolves or a young Boy Swallows Universe.

Wrath of the Dragon King
(Dragonwatch #2)
by Brandon Mull

War has come to the dragon sanctuaries of the world and nowhere is the danger more intense than at Wyrmroost. After a humiliating defeat at the hands of Kendra and Seth, Celebrant, King of Dragons, prepares to unleash his fury and take control of his native preserve. Armed with information from a new ally Ronodin, the dark unicorn Celebrant seeks a legendary talisman the dominion stone.

How It Feels to Float
by Helena Fox

Biz knows how to float. She has her people, her posse, her mom and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, who loves her so hard, and who shouldn’t be here but is. So Biz doesn’t tell anyone anything. Not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And she doesn’t tell anyone about her dad. Because her dad died when she was six. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface—normal okay regular fine.

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Autobiographies Biographies and Memoirs

July 31st, 2020
30th July, 2020

Below is a selection of some of our Autobiographies, Biographies and Memoirs that are available to borrow for the upcoming Year 9 Life Writing assessment, and of course these books are available to all of our students at any time.

Link to LibGuides

Click on the above banner to be directed to out LibGuides research unit on Life Writing

Marie Curie by Robert Reid Marie Skłodowska Curie, born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. (www.goodreads.com)

Born to Run
by Cathy Freeman

Hi guys,Ever since I was little I only had one dream – to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
When I was twenty-seven years old, my dream came true. I’ll never forget that night at the Sydney 2000 Games – as I crossed the finish line, it was as if the whole of Australia was cheering for me. (www.goodreads.com)

Indira Gandhi
by Francelia Butler

Describes how Indira Gandhi’s life was intertwined with the political development of India, eventually leading her to become prime minister. (www.goodreads.com)

Dame Nellie Melba
Aussie Heroes
By: Gabiann Marin, Rae Dale (Illustrator) Six-year-old Helen Porter just wanted to sing on stage. As a child, and then a teenager, she continued to pursue her dream of being a great opera star.

Born Helen Porter Mitchel, she changed her name to reflect her Melbourne heritage. In 1887 Nellie Melba made her operatic debut. She went on to sing in all the great opera houses of Europe. During World War One Nellie Melba worked tirelessly holding many fundraising concerts for the war effort.

Nellie Melba was the first great Australian diva. (www.goodreads.com)

The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time by Kathleen Kuiper

This book lists the 100 most influential women chronologically. It begins with Hatshepsut and ends with Diana, Princess of Wales. Overall, the selections offer a good balance of gender, nationality, and ethnicity. (www.goodreads.com)

Miral
by Rula Jebreal,
John T. Cullen (Translator)

Miral is a novel that focuses on women whose lives unfold in the turbulent political climate along the borders of Israel and Palestine. The story begins with Hind, a woman who sacrifices everything to establish a school for refugee Palestinian girls in East Jerusalem. (www.goodreads.com)

Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit
by Sean Hepburn Ferrer

Now in paperback, an intimate look at the woman the world adored, by the son who adored her with unique photos, drawings, and other rare Audrey memorabilia. (www.goodreads.com)

Top End Girl
by Miranda Tapsell

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. (www.goodreads.com)

I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World
by Malala Yousafzai,
Patricia McCormick

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. (www.goodreads.com)

The Making of Julia Gillard
by Jacqueline Kent The first biography of Australia’s first female Prime Minister.
Julia Gillard has always been an exceptional figure in Australian politics, widely admired by her adversaries as well as in the electorate. And now she is also an exceptional figure in Australian history: the first woman to be this country’s Prime Minister. (www.goodreads.com)

The Girl Who Climbed Everest: The inspirational story of Alyssa Azar, Australia’s Youngest Adventurer
by Sue Williams

‘I believe that nothing is impossible if you dare to dream, plan and take action. I’m an ordinary girl who simply refused to give up on a dream, and that’s all it takes to succeed in life.’ (www.goodreads.com)

Fair Cop
by Christine Nixon,
Jo Chandler

Honest and engaging, this memoir reveals the remarkable rise through police ranks of Australia’s first female chief commissioner. A police officer for more than 35 years, Christine Nixon shares the pressures of a life in the public eye and coping with difficult aspects of the job, such as losing a colleague in the line of duty. (www.goodreads.com)

The Words Inside
by Emmah Money

Emmah is young and beautiful, with the world at her feet. She is also a true survivor …

Emmah Money’s life story is a remarkable one.

During a night out, an acquaintance noted Emmah’s resemblance to some friends of his. This observation would prove to have a profound effect on Emmah’s life. (www.goodreads.com)

Mary MacKillop: Australia’s First Saint
by Jeannie Meekins

Mary MacKillop devoted her life to educating poor children. With the help of Father Julian Woods, she established her own religious Order, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
She set up over 100 schools, educated 12,000 children, and received approval from the Pope for her Order. (www.goodreads.com)

Three Little Words
by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

“Sunshine, you’re my baby and I’m your only mother. You must mind the one taking care of you, but she’s not your mama.” Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes, living by those words. (www.goodreads.com)

Talk To The Hand
by Nicole Dryburgh

In Nicole’s first book, she told readers about her cancer tumors, her hospitalization, her paralyses, and her her blindness. In this second installment of her life story, Nicole begins going deaf. She must learn deaf/blind sign language after the pink hearing aides fail her. Where most of us would have broke down and cracked, Nicole kept going. (www.goodreads.com)

Lydia Lassila Jump
A Journey into the Mind of a Champion
by Lydia Lassila February 24, 2010 – Vancouver Olympic Games. Through the fog lies a four metre high icy wall that will launch you as high as a four story building. The only thing in between you and Olympic glory is one final jump…’Jump’ is a story about mind, body and a fighting spirit. It is journey of self discovery, self belief and battles to overcome injury and setbacks.

Requiem: Diana, Princess of Wales 1961-1997 – Memories and Tributes
by Brian MacArthur (Editor)

To be published in paperback on August 31, a year to the day after her tragic death, these recollections and tributes show why the People’s Princess won so many hearts. There are dozens of pictorial remembrances, but this is the only book in which people from all walks of life have penned their thoughts, feelings, and memories of Diana. (www.goodreads.com)

Strength of Spirit: Pioneering Women of Achievement from First Fleet to Federation
Susanna De Vries

Mary Reibey – Esther Johnston – Caroline Chisolm – Truganini – Georgiana Molloy – Georgiana McCrae – Ann Caldwell – Mary McConnel – Mary Watson – Sister Lucy Osburn – Ann Caldwell – Mary McConnel. (www.goodreads.com)

Becoming
by Michelle Obama

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women. (www.goodreads.com)

Speaking Up
by Gillian Triggs

Gillian Triggs invites you to speak up

“As president of the Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs advocated for the disempowered, the disenfranchised, the marginalised. She withstood relentless political pressure and media scrutiny as she defended the defenceless for five tumultuous years. (www.goodreads.com)

The Will to Fly by Lydia Lassila From a country known for its swimmers, surfers and cricketers, comes the most unlikely sporting luminary;
The Will to Fly is the inspirational story of Olympic champion Lydia Lassila. It chronicles the journey of her tumultuous freestyle aerial skiing career, from fearless beginner to Olympic gold medalist to sporting visionary. (www.goodreads.com)

Miss Muriel Matters: The Australian Actress Who Became One of London’s Most Famous Suffragists
by Robert Wainwright

The Australian actress who became one of London’s most famous suffragists.
Discover the most inspiring woman you’ve never heard of …
In 1909, a young Australian actress made headlines around the world when she took to the sky over London in an airship emblazoned with the slogan ‘Votes for Women’ and dropped leaflets over the city. (www.goodreads.com)

Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic

When Zlata’s Diary was first published at the height of the Bosnian War, it became an international bestseller and was compared to The Diary of Anne Frank, both for the freshness of its voice and the grimness of the world it describes. (www.goodreads.com)

Females on the Fatal Shore: Australia’s Brave Pioneers
by Susanna de Vries
This is the story of the lives of 11 significant women who sailed to the colonies in Australia’s founding years.

The first to arrive was Esther Abrahams, an attractive 16-year-old Jewish girl transported for shoplifting two cards of lace. (www.goodreads.com)

The Changemekers: Ten significant Australian women by Suzane Fabian and Morag Loh Elizabeth Macarthur – Caroline Chisolm – Catherine Helen Spence – Mary Mackillop – Mary Gilmore – Vida Goldstein – Muriel Heagney – Elizabeth Kenny – Kath Walker – Germaine Greer. (www.goodreads.com)

Caroline Chisholm
By: Margaret Kiddle Caroline Chisholm was the most remarkable woman in early Australian colonial history. Her national importance has been marked by the use of her portrait on Australian stamps and currency.

This is the classic biography of the woman whose remarkable and hard-won achievements first asserted the place of women in Australian public life. Almost single-handedly and against strenuous and sometimes malicious opposition, the indomitable Chisholm worked to establish a Female Immigrants’ Home, to encourage family immigration and to fight for better conditions on immigrant ships. (www.goodreads.com)

Mother Teresa: A Pictorial Biography
by Courage Books

Admired by the world for her altruistic efforts on behalf of the sick and poor of India, the late Albanian-born nun became a legend in her own lifetime. Created before her death, this pictorial biography both enlightens and inspires as it sheds light on Mother Teresa’s beginnings and illuminates the selfless and remarkable work that earned her a Nobel prize. (www.goodreads.com)

The Diamond Queen: Elizabeth II and Her People
by Andrew Marr

A surprising and very personal biography of a woman who may be the world’s last great queen, published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of her reign. (www.goodreads.com)

Enid Lyons: Leading Lady to a Nation
by Anne Henderson
This is the story of an extraordinary woman – mother of twelve, Prime Minister’s wife, first woman member of the House of Representatives and the first women in a Federal cabinet, radio broadcaster, newspaper columnist, author of three boos – Enid Lyons was for many years the best known woman in Australia. (www.goodreads.com)

Yassmin’s Story
by Yassmin Abdel-Magied

Frank, fearless, funny, articulate, and inspiring, Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a young Muslim dynamo offering a bracing breath of fresh air—and hope. At 21, Yassmin found herself working on a remote Australian oil and gas rig; she was the only woman and certainly the only Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian background Muslim woman. (www.goodreads.com)

Life As I Know It
by Michelle Payne,
John Harms

The extraordinary story of the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup

Michelle Payne rode into history as the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. She and her 100-to-1 local horse Prince of Penzance took the international racing world by surprise, but hers was no overnight success story. (www.goodreads.com)

The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller
by Carol Baxter

The remarkable true story of a beguiling Melbourne housewife who in the 1920s seeks international fame, fortune and adventure as an aviator and finds herself as the central figure in a sensational American murder trial. (www.goodreads.com)

An Activist Life
by Christine Milne

An Activist Life is the story of an apparently ordinary woman – a high-school English teacher from northwest Tasmania – who became a fiery environmental warrior, pitted against some of the most powerful business and political forces in the country. (www.goodreads.com)

Lion: A Long Way Home
by Saroo Brierley

Aged just five, Saroo Brierley was separated from his family in India when he boarded a train that took him 1500km from his hometown. After weeks surviving alone on the streets of Calcutta, he was eventually adopted by an Australian couple. (www.goodreads.com)

Tesla: Man Out of Time
by Margaret Cheney

In this “informative and delightful” (American Scientist) biography, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of Nikola Tesla, one of the twentieth century’s greatest scientists and inventors.(www.goodreads.com)

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
by Ashlee Vance
Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, sold one of his internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius’s life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. (www.goodreads.com)

No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison
by Behrouz Boochani,
Omid Tofighian

Winner of The Victorian Prize for Literature, and the Prize for Non-Fiction, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2019

Where have I come from? From the land of rivers, the land of waterfalls, the land of ancient chants, the land of mountains…(www.goodreads.com)

The Barefoot Surgeon: The inspirational story of Dr Sanduk Ruit, the eye surgeon giving sight and hope to the world’s poor
by Ali Gripper

‘A true insight into my remarkable friend Dr Sanduk Ruit.’ – Gabi Hollows

‘He reminds me of Don Bradman. They both have a God-given talent and skill…’ – Ray Martin

‘If I’ve done one thing in life I’m proud of, it’s launching Ruit into the world’. – Fred Hollows. (www.goodreads.com)

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition
by William Kamkwamba
Bryan Mealer

The New York Times bestselling memoir of the heroic young inventor who brought electricity to his Malawian village is now perfect for young readers

When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba’s tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season’s crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. (www.goodreads.com)

http://www.goodreads.com

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Reading in the Library in Year 5 & 6

July 28th, 2020
28th July, 2020

Suggested novels for reluctant readers:

Graphic Novels: tell stories in both visual and written form

Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth, and what follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached.

Catrina and her family are moving to the coast of Northern California because her little sister, Maya, is sick. Cat isn’t happy about leaving her friends for Bahía de la Luna, but Maya has cystic fibrosis and will benefit from the cool, salty air that blows in from the sea.

Raina can’t wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren’t quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she’s also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself.

Babysitters Little Sister Graphix Books Karen lives next door to an old lady named Mrs. Porter. Mrs. Porter wears long black robes and has wild grey hair. Her black cat is named Midnight. No wonder Karen thinks Mrs. Porter is a witch! Mrs. Porter is having a meeting at her house. Karen is sure the meeting is for witches.

Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. Her mom has one, too, so it’s probably just a bug. Raina eventually returns to school, where she’s dealing with the usual highs and lows: friends, not-friends, and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross-out session.

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school’s production of Moon Over Mississippi, she can’t really sing. Instead she’s the set designer for the drama department stage crew, and this year she’s determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget.

Babysitters Club Graphic Novels When Kristy Thomas has the great idea to form a baby-sitters club–a chance to earn money and spend time with her friends, all the while doing something they each love to do–she has no idea how much the club will change everything.

Series: popular on Netflix and Stan, watch the series, read the books, hook the reader

Humorous: generally, hook the reader in with funny and playful storylines

A very funny Tom Weekly story from the slightly warped brains of the author and illustrator of My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up.

Think your grandpa’s angry? Think again. I’m Tom Weekly and my Pop is the angriest grandpa in Australia.

Introduce your young reader to the baddest bunch of do-gooders in town — Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake, and Mr. Shark, the main characters in author and illustrator Aaron Blabey’s The Bad Guys series.
Whether they’re breaking 200 dogs free from the Maximum Security City Dog Pound or saving the world from evil Dr. Marmalade’s meowing monsters, these unforgettable characters will entice even the most reluctant readers.

Other recommended books/series:

The seven dragon tribes have been at war for generations, locked in an endless battle over an ancient, lost treasure. A secret movement called the Talons of Peace is determined to bring an end to the fighting, with the help of a prophecy — a foretelling that calls for great sacrifice. (SERIES)

There’s something strange behind the basement door…

After a family tragedy, Emily, Navin and their mother move to an ancestral home to start a new life. On the family’s very first night in the mysterious house, Em and Navin’s mom is kidnapped by a tentacled creature. (SERIES)

From worldwide bestselling author and artist Dav Pilkey comes Dog Man, the canine cop who’s part dog, part man, and ALL HERO!
George and Harold have created a new breed of justice. With the head of a dog and the body of a human, this heroic hound digs into deception, claws after crooks, rolls over robbers, and scampers after squirrels. (SERIES)

He’s the first teacher to cook us breakfast.
Is his spark-maker beetle really that dangerous?
I heard he drank yak’s milk in Mongolia.
He’s the only person who isn’t afraid of Canteen Carol.
My mum says he used to be in the circus. (SERIES)

orget finding the elusive Fortnite llama or taming your Minecraft llama – 2020 is the year of the League of Llamas!

The League of Llamas (LOL) are a group of secret llama agents and they’re on a mission to save the world – if only Agent 0011 Phillipe Llamar could stop looking in the mirror at his luxurious fringe. (SERIES)

From Australia’s best-selling female author, Sally Rippin, comes Polly and Buster – a brand new junior fiction series about the magic of friendship.

Who ever heard of a witch and a monster being friends? (SERIES)

I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid. (NOVEL)

The book that started it all–now in paperback!

Judy Moody was in a mood. Not a good mood. A bad mood.
A mad-faced mood.

Judy Moody doesn’t have high hopes for third grade. But she does have an abundance of individuality and attitude, and when Mr. Todd assigns the class a special Me Project, she really gets a chance to express herself! (SERIES)

Ever wonder why pigeons always act so weird? It’s because they’re out there chasing the bad guys and saving your butts!

Did you know your city is protected by a secret squad of crime-fighting pigeons? It’s true! With master of disguise Rock Pigeon, bendy Tumbler, strong Frillback and super-finder Homey, the REAL PIGEONS will solve any mystery. (SERIES)

A ten-year-old pirate captain? Absurd? Not in the world of Atticus Van Tasticus, a fabulously funny new illustrated junior fiction series from the brilliant and whacky creative minds of Andrew Daddo and Stephen Michael King. (SERIES)

Can the SIDEKICKS start their own SUPER team?! New York Times bestselling cartoonist Gavin Aung Than delivers caped-crusaders, dinosaurs, and goo in this hilarious new graphic novel series, perfect for fans of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS and HILO! (SERIES)

Introducing Kensy and Max – an action-packed spy-adventure series for girls and boys from bestselling author Jacqueline Harvey!

What would you do if you woke up in a strange place? If your whole life changed in the blink of an eye and you had no idea what was going on? (SERIES)

This year we have not been able to hold our Significant Adult and Daughter Book Club. At this stage we are not able to have parents on site. I would still like to provide the girls with an opportunity to join a book club and talk about books. It would be great if your daughter is attending, that you also read the book, as it is a great way to increase chat and book talk at home.

Book Club begins with purchasing or borrowing a copy of the text from your local library or from a bookstore. The book is read over several weeks before we gather to share afternoon tea and chat about the book. The afternoon finishes with selecting the next text for the next book club.

The book club caters to all readers: the prolific and the reluctant. Click here to RSVP.

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Staff Holiday Reads Gift Pack

June 26th, 2020
26th June 2020

At the end of every term, the library sends out information to teachers and staff at All Hallows’ School about new and interesting books that we have available in the library to read over the holidays.

We are advocates for lifelong learning and our aim is to inspire everyone to keep reading for pleasure as well as research.

This year because of COVID19 we were not able to have a staff book talk and morning tea, so instead we used LibWizard to create a survey form for the teachers and staff to complete, with questions about favourite genres, which books they preferred in the list we provided, and also what other books they might like to read. We also asked if they had any dietary requirements.

With such a great response, we had to go out and purchase new books to fill all the orders! When the staff came to collect their books they were also greeted with a gift pack which included a couple of treats, a coffee or hot chocolate sachet, and a bookmark from the library staff.

To all our wonderful staff, have a great winter break and we will see you next term.

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Blizzard of Books for Year 5 & 6

June 11th, 2020
When it is cold outside there is nothing better than a good book, warm blankets and large jumpers!

The Highland Falcon Thief by Elisa Paganelli
Harrison Beck and his Uncle Nat are enjoying the final journey of the Highland Falcon, Britain’s most famous steam train. But when a precious jewel goes missing, Harrison and his friend Lenny find themselves at the centre of the investigation. Can they solve the mystery and catch the culprit before they reach the end of the line?

Detention by Tristian Bancks
Sima and her family are pressed into the rough, cold ground among fifty others. They lie next to the tall fence designed to keep them in. The wires are cut one by one. When they make their escape, a guard raised the alarm. Shouting, smoke bombs, people tackled to the ground. In the chaos Sima loses her parents. Dad told her to run, so she does, hiding in a school and triggering a lock down. A boy, dan, finds her hiding in the toilet block. What should he do? Dob her in? She’s breaking the law, but is it right to lock kids up? And if he helps, should Sima trust him? Or run?

Catch a Falling star by Meg McKinlay
It’s 1979 and the sky is falling. Skylab, that is. Somewhere high above Frankie Avery, one of the world’s first space stations is tumbling to Earth. And rushing back with it are old memories. Things twelve-year-old Frankie thought she’d forgotten. Things her mum won’t talk about, and which her little brother Newt never knew. Or did he? Does he? Because as Skylab circles closer, Newt starts acting strangely. And while the world watches the sky, Frankie keeps her own eyes on Newt. Because if anyone’s going to keep him safe, it’s her. It always has been. But maybe this is something bigger than splinters and spiders and sleepwalking. Maybe a space station isn’t the only thing heading straight for calamity.

The Unforgettable What’s his name by Craig Smith
Even before all this happened, I had never been like the other kids. I tried not to be seen. If I climbed a tree or hid among the bins, no one could find me. ‘Where’s What’s His Name?’ they’d say. Then, one weekend, I got what I wanted. First, I blended in with things. But on the second day I changed. I mean, really changed.

Kensy and Max: Breaking News by Jacqueline Harvey
In a split second, twins Kensy and Max’s lives are turned upside down — they are whisked off to London where they discover their parents are missing! As the situation unfolds, so many things don’t add up for Kensy and Max: their strange school, the bizarre grannies on their street, the coded messages that keep popping up in unusual places and the feeling that all the adults around them are keeping secrets! No matter what happens next, things can never go back to the way they were…

Cream Buns and Crime: A Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

Daisy and Hazel invite you to discover their untold stories . . .

Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are famous for the murder cases they have solved – but there are many other mysteries in the pages of Hazel’s casebook.

From the macabre Case of the Deepdean Vampire, to the baffling Case of the Blue Violet, and their very first case of all: the Case of Lavinia’s Missing Tie.

Just like Daisy and Hazel’s cases, there’s more to this book than meets the eye, including:

Brilliant mini-mysteries, including two brand-new and never seen before stories

Daisy and Hazel’s own tips, tricks and facts. (Goodreads)

Death in the Spotlight
(Murder Most Unladylike Mystery #7)
by Robin Stevens Someone will take their final bow . . .

Fresh from their adventure in Hong Kong, Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells are off to the Rue Theatre in London to face an entirely new challenge: acting.

But the Detective Society is never far away from danger, and it’s clear there’s trouble afoot at the Rue.

Jealousy, threats and horrible pranks quickly spiral out of control – and then a body is found. (Goodreads)

Mistletoe and Murder
(Murder Most Unladylike Mystery #5)
by Robin Stevens Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are spending the Christmas hols in snowy Cambridge. Hazel has high hopes of its beautiful spires, cosy libraries and inviting tea-rooms – but there is danger lurking in the dark stairwells of ancient Maudlin College.

Two days before Christmas, there is a terrible accident. At least, it appears to be an accident – until the Detective Society look a little closer, and realise a murder has taken place. Faced with several irritating grown-ups and fierce competition from a rival agency, they must use all their cunning and courage to find the killer (in time for Christmas Day, of course).

The Girl who Speaks Bear
by Sophie Anderson
Found abandoned in a bear cave as a baby, Yanka has always wondered where she is from. She tries to ignore the strange whispers and looks from the villagers, wishing she was as strong inside as she is on the outside. When Yanka flees her house, looking for answers about who she really is, a journey far beyond anything she ever imagined begins – from icy rivers to smouldering mountains, meeting an ever0growing herd of extraordinary friends along the way.

The Chickens Curse by Frances Watts
Felix and Livia are being pursued across the Roman empire, from the darkest, dampest corner of Gaul to the dry, desert sands of Tadmor. They must reach Rome by the Ides of April to rescue Livia’s brother before he is sent into the arena to do battle with lions – and perhaps a vicious ostrich or two! Along the way, the pair are helped (and hindered) by a selfish sacred chicken, a foolish camel and a grumpy magic carpet as they encounter bandits, a shipwreck and a false accusation. Will they save Livia’s brother in time, or will they all fall victim to the chicken’s curse?

The Anti-Princess Club: Bella’s backyard bullies
by Samantha Turnbull
Design genius Bella Singh has built a clubhouse in her backyard, where the Anti-Princesses meet to thumb their noses at the notion that boys are best. But when they receive angry anonymous emails telling them to act like girls or else, followed by sabotage of their beloved clubhouse, it’s clear they have a new mission.

The year the maps changed
by Danielle Binks

One extraordinary year will change them all…Sorrento, Victoria, 1999.
Fred’s family is a mess. Her mother died when she was six and she’s been raised by her Pop and adoptive father, Luca, ever since. But now Pop’s had to go away, and Luca’s girlfriend Anika and her son have moved in. More and more it feels like a land-grab for family and Fred is the one being left off the map. Even as things feel like they’re spinning out of control for Fred, a crisis from the other side of the world comes crashing in. When a group of Kosovar-Albanian refugees are brought to a government ‘safe haven’ not far from Sorrento, their fate becomes intertwined with the lives of Fred and her family in ways that no one could have expected.

Just a Dog
by Gerard Bauer
Mr Mosely isn’t a pedigreed dog, but he is just the dog Corey and his family want: he is loyal, protective and loving. And he is much more than that. He might well be the one thing that holds them all together.

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It’s now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are “relocated,” Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen’s life. (Goodreads)

Jolly Foul Play
(Murder Most Unladylike Mystery #4)
by Robin Stevens The fantastic new mystery from the author of Murder Most Unladylike.

Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong have returned to Deepdean for a new school term, but nothing is the same. There’s a new Head Girl, Elizabeth Hurst, and a team of Prefects – and these bullying Big Girls are certainly not good eggs.

Then, after the fireworks display on Bonfire Night, Elizabeth is found – murdered. (Goodreads)

Top Marks for Murder
(Murder Most Unladylike Mystery #8)
by Robin Stevens Daisy and Hazel are finally back at Deepdean, and the school is preparing for a most exciting event: the fiftieth Anniversary.

Plans for a weekend of celebrations are in full swing. But all is not well, for in the detectives’ long absence, Deepdean has changed. Daisy has lost her crown to a fascinating new girl – and many of the Detective Society’s old allies are now their sworn enemies.

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Winter Holiday Reading 2020

June 11th, 2020
Curl up with a good book this Winter Holiday season. Choose from a few of our suggestons including Non Fiction and a Classic Read.

The After Room
by Maile Meloy

It’s 1955, and Benjamin Burrows and Janie Scott are trying to live a safe, normal life in America. It’s not easy, when they have the power to prevent nuclear disaster, and sinister forces are circling. Soon the advice of a mysterious, unscrupulous magician propels Janie and Benjamin into danger, and toward the land of the dead.

Meanwhile, their friend Jin Lo washes up on a remote island where an American spy is stationed and finds herself on the trail of a deadly threat in China. But she’s on the other side of the world—how can Janie and Benjamin reach her?
(Goodreads)

The Apprentices
by Maile Meloy

Two years have passed since Janie Scott last saw Benjamin Burrows, the mysterious apothecary’s defiant son who stole her heart. On the other side of the world, Benjamin and his father are treating the sick and wounded in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. But Benjamin has also been experimenting with a magical new formula that allows him to communicate with Janie across the globe. When Benjamin discovers that she’s in trouble, he calls on their friend Pip for help. The three friends are thrown into a desperate chase around the world to find one another, while unraveling the mystery of what threatens them all.
(Goodreads)

Maigret and the Informer
by George Simenon

The body of a well-known Parisian restaurateur turns up on Avenue Junot in Montmartre, seemingly having been killed elsewhere. Inspector Maigret is on the case, and soon discovers that the murder may be gang-related after a colleague working in the red-light district receives a tip from an anonymous informer.
(Goodreads)

The Night Fire
By Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch and LAPD Detective Renée 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

Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case. Now that mentor, John Jack Thompson, is dead, and his widow gives Bosch a murder book, one that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD twenty years before — the unsolved killing of a troubled young man.
           (Goodreads)

The End of the World Is Bigger than Love
by Davina Bell
She said we didn’t know what the world out there had become. We had been alone there so long on that tiny island, in that tiny church.
But in the night, I couldn’t bear it.
My chest beat like wings.
Identical twin sisters Summer and Winter live alone on a remote island, sheltered from a destroyed world. They survive on rations stockpiled by their father and spend their days deep in their mother’s collection of classic literature—until a mysterious stranger upends their carefully constructed reality.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
by Hand Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Roslimg Runnlund

Factfulness:The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.

When asked simple questions about global trends – why the world’s population is increasing; how many young women go to school; how many of us live in poverty – we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.
(Goodreads)

Inside my Mother
By Alli Cobby Eckermann

        In her memoir Too Afraid to Cry, published in 2013, Indigenous poet Ali Cobby Eckermann related how she had been tricked away from her mother as a baby, repeating the trauma her mother had suffered when she was taken from her grandmother many years before. Eckermann in turn had to give her own child up for adoption. In her new poetry collection, Inside my Mother, she explores the distance between the generations created by such experiences, felt as an interminable void in its darkest aspects, marked by sadness, withdrawal, yearning and mistrust, but in other ways a magical place ‘beyond the imagination’, lit by dreams and visions of startling intensity, populated by symbolic presences and scenes of ritual and commemoration, chief amongst them the separation and reunion of mother and child. Though the emotions are strong, they are expressed simply and with a sense of significance in nature which reminds one of the poetry of Oodgero Noonuccal, whose successor Eckermann is.
                (Goodreads)

Angels Flight
by Michael Connelly

New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly sets his novels of suspense against a world divided by race, politics, money, and the media. Here he thrusts Detective Harry Bosch on a harrowing journey into a high-profile murder case–and darkness…
An activist attorney is killed in a cute little L.A. trolley called Angels Flight, far from Harry Bosch’s Hollywood turf. But the case is so explosive–and the dead man’s enemies inside the L.A.P.D. are so numerous–that it falls to Harry to solve it. Now the streets are superheating.
(Goodreads)

Maigret and Monsieur Charles
by George Simenon

When an elegant but nervous woman appears in Inspector Maigret’s office and reports her rich and successful husband missing, Maigret and Lapointe find themselves on the trail of a man leading a double life: a prominent Parisian solicitor by day, a playboy known as “Monsieur Charles” by night.
(Goodreads)

The Starless Sea
By Erin Morgenstern

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world–a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues–a bee, a key, and a sword–that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library, hidden far below the surface of the earth.
(Goodreads)

The Year the Maps Changed
by Danielle Binks
‘I was eleven when everything started and twelve by the end. But that’s another way maps lie, because it felt like the distance travelled was a whole lot further than that.’
Sorrento, Victoria – 1999
Fred’s family is a mess. Fred’s mother died when she was six and she’s been raised by her Pop and adoptive father, Luca, ever since. But now Pop is at the Rye Rehabilitation Centre recovering from a fall; Luca’s girlfriend, Anika, has moved in; and Fred’s just found out that Anika and Luca are having a baby of their own. More and more it feels like a land-grab for family and Fred is the one being left off the map. (Goodreads)

Again Again
by E. Lockhart
In this novel full of surprises from the New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud, E. Lockhart ups the ante with an inventive and romantic story about human connection, forgiveness, self-discovery, and possibility.
If you could live your life again, what would you do differently?

Something deeply hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime

Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science, rewrites the history of 20th century physics. Already hailed as a masterpiece, Something Deeply Hidden shows for the first time that facing up to the essential puzzle of quantum mechanics utterly transforms how we think about space and time. His reconciling of quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of relativity changes, well, everything.
                (Goodreads)

BOSH!: The Cookbook: Simple Recipes. Amazing Food. All Plants.
by Henry Firth, Ian Theasby

Henry Firth and Ian Theasby, creators of the world’s biggest and fastest-growing plant-based platform, BOSH!, are the new faces of the food revolution.
Their online channels have well over 1.8 million fans and constantly inspire people to cook ultra-tasty & super simple recipes at home. Always ensuring they stick to fresh, supermarket-friendly ingredients, BOSH! truly is “plant-based food for everyone”.
(Goodreads)

A Tail of Two Cities
By Charles Dickens

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.
(Goodreads)

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Winter Holiday Staff Reads

June 5th, 2020
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)

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