We love reading... staff picks for September
~Deb H
The invasion of the Tearling by Erika JohansenHurrah the second book of the Tearling triology by first time author Erika Johansen delivers. We meet Kelsea Glynn who is now Queen of the Tearling about to go to war with the cruel Red Queen and her fearsome dark magic. As the fearsome Mort arny draw closer Queen Kelsea has fugues where she experiences the life of lily in the time before the Crossing. In the end she must fight for her own future and that of her people. I look forward to the third novel in this trilogy.
~Meagan
The Bad Seed William MarchWritten in 1954 and adapted in to a film in 1956, this book tells the story of what happens to a seemingly ordinary family when a 'bad seed' child is born. Christine, a perfect 1950s housewife lives with the daughter Rhonda in a small town. Her husband is working away from home so the story revolves around Christine and Rhonda and a cast of unsuspecting people involved in their lives. The question that the author poses is do bad seeds get carried into future generations? This creepy thriller set the benchmark for a raft of creepy children books and it still stands the test of time.
~Angela
Two Brothers by Ben Elton
Berlin 1920, twin boys are born to Jewish parents. But it is also the birth year of another child of the 20th Century, the Nazi Party. Only one of these three will survive beyond 1945. Two brothers, united and indivisible, sharing everything. Twins in all but blood. As Germany marches into the Nazi era, onward to the Jewish oppression, the ties of family, friendship and love are tested to the very limits of endurance. And the brothers are faced with an unimaginable choice. Ben Elton has written an epic novel which fully details the times in Germany which led to the Jewish nightmare, and the final evil conclusion, from the viewpoint of a small secular Jewish family. As part of the tale there is also a mystery, with a number of twists in the plot to surprise the reader. Elton usually imparts a message in his novels about problems he sees in our society, and he can lay it on a bit thick, although with a distinct brand of humour. In this novel the message is in the historic facts, which he brings out very well in the story, but in no way could it be called a humorous book. As we learn, this is a story close to Elton’s own family history, which accounts for much of the detail. An alternate story of the Jewish experience leading up to WWII, written with feeling, and a flowing read.Eighteen year old Ada Vaughan is an ambitious girl with dreams of becoming a successful fashion designer. A romance with Stanislaus von Lieben leads Ada to Paris as war breaks out, resulting in her being taken prisoner and ultimately becoming known as the dressmaker of Dachau, a situation that haunts her both during and after the war. The story not only illustrates the horror of war and survival in Dachau, but also explores Ada's life after the war. Her determination to survive and succeed, bad decisions and circumstances beyond her control result in unexpected situations and consequences. This story is a tale of heartache, surprising twists and tragedy. It has a totally unexpected ending. Worth reading.
~Monique
September reads...
When we were animals by Joshua Gaylord
A gothic coming-of-age tale for modern times
The truth is, nobody knew why it happened this way, but in the town where I grew up, when the boys and girls reached a certain age, the parents locked themselves up in their houses, and the teenagers ran wild...
As a well-behaved and over-achieving teenager, Lumen Fowler knows she is different. While the rest of her peers are falling beneath the sway of her community's darkest rite of passage, she resists, choosing to hole herself up in her room with only books for company.
For Lumen has a secret. Her mother never 'breached' and she knows she won't either. But as she investigates the town's strange traditions and unearths stories from her family's past, she soon realises she may not know herself – or her wild side – at all...
All together now by Gill Hornby
All Together Now is a poignant and charming novel about community, family, falling in love--and the big rewards of making a small change.
The small town of Bridgeford is in crisis. Downtown is deserted, businesses are closing, and the idea of civic pride seems old-fashioned to residents rushing through the streets to get somewhere else. Bridgeford seems to have lost its heart.
But there is one thing that just might unite the community--music. The local choir, a group generally either ignored or mocked by most of Bridgeford's inhabitants, is preparing for an important contest, and to win it they need new members, and a whole new sound. Enlisting (some may say drafting) singers, who include a mother suffering from empty-nest syndrome, a middle-aged man who has just lost his job and his family, and a nineteen-year-old waitress who dreams of reality-TV stardom, the choir regulars must find--and make--harmony with neighbors they've been happy not to know for years. Can they all learn to work together, save the choir, and maybe even save their town in the process?
I'm travelling alone by Samuel Bjørk ; translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund
A complex and sophisticated Norwegian crime thriller - already a bestseller in Scandinavia.
When a six year old girl is found dead, hanging from a tree, the only clue the Oslo Police have to work with is an airline tag around her neck. It reads ‘I'm travelling alone'.
Holger Munch, veteran police investigator, is immediately charged with re-assembling his homicide unit. But to complete the team, he must convince his erstwhile partner, Mia Kruger – a brilliant but troubled investigator – to return from the solitary island where she has retreated with plans to take her own life.
Reviewing the evidence, Mia identifies something no one else has noticed – a thin line carved into the dead girl's fingernail: the number 1. Instinctively, she knows that this is only the beginning. To save other children from the same fate, she must find a way to cast aside her own demons and confront the most terrifying, cold-hearted serial killer of her career…
The watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
Utterly beguiling, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street blends historical events with dazzling flights of fancy to plunge readers into a strange and magical past, where time, destiny, genius – and a clockwork octopus – collide.
In 1883, Thaniel Steepleton returns to his tiny flat to find a gold pocketwatch on his pillow. But he has worse fears than generous burglars; he is a telegraphist at the Home Office, which has just received a threat for what could be the largest-scale Fenian bombing in history.
When the watch saves Thaniel's life in a blast that destroys Scotland Yard, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori – a kind, lonely immigrant who sweeps him into a new world of clockwork and music. Although Mori seems harmless at first, a chain of unexpected slips soon proves that he must be hiding something.
Meanwhile, Grace Carrow is sneaking into an Oxford library dressed as a man. A theoretical physicist, she is desperate to prove the existence of the luminiferous ether before her mother can force her to marry.
As the lives of these three characters become entwined, events spiral out of control until Thaniel is torn between loyalties, futures and opposing geniuses.
Did you ever have a family by Bill Clegg
We all have families. What do you do when your family has just been destroyed?
This book of dark secrets opens with a blaze. On the morning of her daughter's wedding, June Reid's house goes up in flames, destroying her entire family – her present, her past and her future. Fleeing from the carnage, stricken and alone, June finds herself in a motel room by the ocean, hundreds of miles from her Connecticut home, held captive by memories and the mistakes she has made with her only child, Lolly, and her partner, Luke.
In the turbulence of grief and gossip left in June's wake we slowly make sense of the unimaginable. The novel is a gathering of voices, and each testimony has a new revelation about what led to the catastrophe – Luke's alienated mother Lydia, the watchful motel owners, their cleaner Cissy, the teenage pothead who lives nearby – everyone touched by the tragedy finds themselves caught in the undertow, as their secret histories finally come to light.
The seed collectors by Scarlett Thomas
The long-awaited new novel from the bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y.
"I have no idea why everyone thinks nature is so benign and glorious and wonderful. All nature is trying to do is kill us as efficiently as possible."
Aunt Oleander is dead. In the Garden of England her extended family gather to remember her, to tell stories and to rekindle old memories. To each of her nearest and dearest Oleander has left a precious seed pod. But along with it comes a family secret that could open the hardest of hearts but also break the closest ties . . .
A complex and fiercely contemporary tale of inheritance, enlightenment, life, death, desire and family trees, The Seed Collectors is the most important novel yet from one of the world's most daring and brilliant writers. As Henry James said of George Eliot's Middlemarch, The Seed Collectors is a 'treasurehouse of detail' revealing all that it means to be connected, to be part of a society, to be part of the universe and to be human.
The boy between by Susan Stairs
Tenderly told, The Boy Between is a compelling story of family secrets, focused on the dark happenings of a fateful summer, and the long buried-events of an even more distant past.
When Orla, a young barrister working in Dublin, discovers an old family photo taken in 1983, she is intrigued to find out the identity of the teenage boy in it. He stands in between her parents, her beaming mother's arm tightly around him. Yet when she brings it up with her father, he won't be drawn, and pleads with her not to mention it to her mother.
And so begins a journey into the past, to the summer before she was born. But why is it proving so difficult to discover his identity? And why, given her mother's troubled history, is this the last photograph Orla knows of in which she looks truly happy?
Told in the alternating perspectives of Orla and Tim - the boy between - as the circle starts to close on a web of tragedy and deceit, lives all round will be changed in ways that could never have been guessed at.
Roboteer by Alex Lamb
A fast-paced, gritty, space-opera based on cutting edge science, perfect for fans of Peter F Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds
The starship Ariel is on a mission of the utmost secrecy, upon which the fate of thousands of lives depend. Though the ship is a mile long, its six crew are crammed into a space barely large enough for them to stand. Five are officers, geniuses in their field. The other is Will Kuno-Monet, the man responsible for single-handedly running a ship comprised of the most dangerous and delicate technology that mankind has ever devised. He is the Roboteer. Roboteer is a hard-SF novel set in a future in which the colonization of the stars has turned out to be anything but easy, and civilization on Earth has collapsed under the pressure of relentless mutual terrorism. Small human settlements cling to barely habitable planets. Without support from a home-world they have had to develop ways of life heavily dependent on robotics and genetic engineering. Then out of the ruins of Earth's once great empire, a new force arises - a world-spanning religion bent on the conversion of all mankind to its creed. It sends fleets of starships to reclaim the colonies. But the colonies don't want to be reclaimed. Mankind's first interstellar war begins. It is dirty, dangerous and hideously costly. Will is a man bred to interface with the robots that his home-world Galatea desperately needs to survive. He finds himself sent behind enemy lines to discover the secret of their newest weapon. What he discovers will transform their understanding of both science and civilization forever...but at a cost.
The bit in between by ClaireVarley
There are seven billion people in the world. This is the story of two of them.
After an unfortunate incident in an airport lounge involving an immovable customs officer, a full jar of sun-dried tomatoes, quite a lot of vomit, and the capricious hand of fate, Oliver meets Alison. In spite of this less than romantic start, Oliver falls in love with her.
Immediately.
Inexplicably.
Irrevocably.
With no other place to be, Alison follows Oliver to the Solomon Islands where he is planning to write his much-anticipated second novel. But as Oliver's story begins to take shape, odd things start to happen and he senses there may be more hinging on his novel than the burden of expectation. As he gets deeper into the manuscript and Alison moves further away from him, Oliver finds himself clinging to a narrative that may not end with 'happily ever after'
A guide to Berlin by Gail Jones
Brave and brilliant, A Guide to Berlin traces the strength and fragility of our connections through biographies and secrets.
'A Guide to Berlin' is the name of a short story written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1925, when he was a young man of 26, living in Berlin.
A group of six international travellers, two Italians, two Japanese, an American and an Australian, meet in empty apartments in Berlin to share stories and memories. Each is enthralled in some way to the work of Vladimir Nabokov, and each is finding their way in deep winter in a haunted city. A moment of devastating violence shatters the group, and changes the direction of everyone's story.
A gothic coming-of-age tale for modern times
The truth is, nobody knew why it happened this way, but in the town where I grew up, when the boys and girls reached a certain age, the parents locked themselves up in their houses, and the teenagers ran wild...
As a well-behaved and over-achieving teenager, Lumen Fowler knows she is different. While the rest of her peers are falling beneath the sway of her community's darkest rite of passage, she resists, choosing to hole herself up in her room with only books for company.
For Lumen has a secret. Her mother never 'breached' and she knows she won't either. But as she investigates the town's strange traditions and unearths stories from her family's past, she soon realises she may not know herself – or her wild side – at all...
All together now by Gill Hornby
All Together Now is a poignant and charming novel about community, family, falling in love--and the big rewards of making a small change.
The small town of Bridgeford is in crisis. Downtown is deserted, businesses are closing, and the idea of civic pride seems old-fashioned to residents rushing through the streets to get somewhere else. Bridgeford seems to have lost its heart.
But there is one thing that just might unite the community--music. The local choir, a group generally either ignored or mocked by most of Bridgeford's inhabitants, is preparing for an important contest, and to win it they need new members, and a whole new sound. Enlisting (some may say drafting) singers, who include a mother suffering from empty-nest syndrome, a middle-aged man who has just lost his job and his family, and a nineteen-year-old waitress who dreams of reality-TV stardom, the choir regulars must find--and make--harmony with neighbors they've been happy not to know for years. Can they all learn to work together, save the choir, and maybe even save their town in the process?
I'm travelling alone by Samuel Bjørk ; translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund
A complex and sophisticated Norwegian crime thriller - already a bestseller in Scandinavia.
When a six year old girl is found dead, hanging from a tree, the only clue the Oslo Police have to work with is an airline tag around her neck. It reads ‘I'm travelling alone'.Holger Munch, veteran police investigator, is immediately charged with re-assembling his homicide unit. But to complete the team, he must convince his erstwhile partner, Mia Kruger – a brilliant but troubled investigator – to return from the solitary island where she has retreated with plans to take her own life.
Reviewing the evidence, Mia identifies something no one else has noticed – a thin line carved into the dead girl's fingernail: the number 1. Instinctively, she knows that this is only the beginning. To save other children from the same fate, she must find a way to cast aside her own demons and confront the most terrifying, cold-hearted serial killer of her career…
The watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
Utterly beguiling, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street blends historical events with dazzling flights of fancy to plunge readers into a strange and magical past, where time, destiny, genius – and a clockwork octopus – collide.
In 1883, Thaniel Steepleton returns to his tiny flat to find a gold pocketwatch on his pillow. But he has worse fears than generous burglars; he is a telegraphist at the Home Office, which has just received a threat for what could be the largest-scale Fenian bombing in history.
When the watch saves Thaniel's life in a blast that destroys Scotland Yard, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori – a kind, lonely immigrant who sweeps him into a new world of clockwork and music. Although Mori seems harmless at first, a chain of unexpected slips soon proves that he must be hiding something.
Meanwhile, Grace Carrow is sneaking into an Oxford library dressed as a man. A theoretical physicist, she is desperate to prove the existence of the luminiferous ether before her mother can force her to marry.
As the lives of these three characters become entwined, events spiral out of control until Thaniel is torn between loyalties, futures and opposing geniuses.
We all have families. What do you do when your family has just been destroyed?
This book of dark secrets opens with a blaze. On the morning of her daughter's wedding, June Reid's house goes up in flames, destroying her entire family – her present, her past and her future. Fleeing from the carnage, stricken and alone, June finds herself in a motel room by the ocean, hundreds of miles from her Connecticut home, held captive by memories and the mistakes she has made with her only child, Lolly, and her partner, Luke.In the turbulence of grief and gossip left in June's wake we slowly make sense of the unimaginable. The novel is a gathering of voices, and each testimony has a new revelation about what led to the catastrophe – Luke's alienated mother Lydia, the watchful motel owners, their cleaner Cissy, the teenage pothead who lives nearby – everyone touched by the tragedy finds themselves caught in the undertow, as their secret histories finally come to light.
The long-awaited new novel from the bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y.
"I have no idea why everyone thinks nature is so benign and glorious and wonderful. All nature is trying to do is kill us as efficiently as possible."Aunt Oleander is dead. In the Garden of England her extended family gather to remember her, to tell stories and to rekindle old memories. To each of her nearest and dearest Oleander has left a precious seed pod. But along with it comes a family secret that could open the hardest of hearts but also break the closest ties . . .
A complex and fiercely contemporary tale of inheritance, enlightenment, life, death, desire and family trees, The Seed Collectors is the most important novel yet from one of the world's most daring and brilliant writers. As Henry James said of George Eliot's Middlemarch, The Seed Collectors is a 'treasurehouse of detail' revealing all that it means to be connected, to be part of a society, to be part of the universe and to be human.
The boy between by Susan Stairs
Tenderly told, The Boy Between is a compelling story of family secrets, focused on the dark happenings of a fateful summer, and the long buried-events of an even more distant past.
When Orla, a young barrister working in Dublin, discovers an old family photo taken in 1983, she is intrigued to find out the identity of the teenage boy in it. He stands in between her parents, her beaming mother's arm tightly around him. Yet when she brings it up with her father, he won't be drawn, and pleads with her not to mention it to her mother.And so begins a journey into the past, to the summer before she was born. But why is it proving so difficult to discover his identity? And why, given her mother's troubled history, is this the last photograph Orla knows of in which she looks truly happy?
Told in the alternating perspectives of Orla and Tim - the boy between - as the circle starts to close on a web of tragedy and deceit, lives all round will be changed in ways that could never have been guessed at.
Roboteer by Alex Lamb
A fast-paced, gritty, space-opera based on cutting edge science, perfect for fans of Peter F Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds
The starship Ariel is on a mission of the utmost secrecy, upon which the fate of thousands of lives depend. Though the ship is a mile long, its six crew are crammed into a space barely large enough for them to stand. Five are officers, geniuses in their field. The other is Will Kuno-Monet, the man responsible for single-handedly running a ship comprised of the most dangerous and delicate technology that mankind has ever devised. He is the Roboteer. Roboteer is a hard-SF novel set in a future in which the colonization of the stars has turned out to be anything but easy, and civilization on Earth has collapsed under the pressure of relentless mutual terrorism. Small human settlements cling to barely habitable planets. Without support from a home-world they have had to develop ways of life heavily dependent on robotics and genetic engineering. Then out of the ruins of Earth's once great empire, a new force arises - a world-spanning religion bent on the conversion of all mankind to its creed. It sends fleets of starships to reclaim the colonies. But the colonies don't want to be reclaimed. Mankind's first interstellar war begins. It is dirty, dangerous and hideously costly. Will is a man bred to interface with the robots that his home-world Galatea desperately needs to survive. He finds himself sent behind enemy lines to discover the secret of their newest weapon. What he discovers will transform their understanding of both science and civilization forever...but at a cost.The bit in between by ClaireVarley
There are seven billion people in the world. This is the story of two of them.
After an unfortunate incident in an airport lounge involving an immovable customs officer, a full jar of sun-dried tomatoes, quite a lot of vomit, and the capricious hand of fate, Oliver meets Alison. In spite of this less than romantic start, Oliver falls in love with her.
Immediately.
Inexplicably.
Irrevocably.
With no other place to be, Alison follows Oliver to the Solomon Islands where he is planning to write his much-anticipated second novel. But as Oliver's story begins to take shape, odd things start to happen and he senses there may be more hinging on his novel than the burden of expectation. As he gets deeper into the manuscript and Alison moves further away from him, Oliver finds himself clinging to a narrative that may not end with 'happily ever after'
A guide to Berlin by Gail Jones
Brave and brilliant, A Guide to Berlin traces the strength and fragility of our connections through biographies and secrets.
'A Guide to Berlin' is the name of a short story written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1925, when he was a young man of 26, living in Berlin.
A group of six international travellers, two Italians, two Japanese, an American and an Australian, meet in empty apartments in Berlin to share stories and memories. Each is enthralled in some way to the work of Vladimir Nabokov, and each is finding their way in deep winter in a haunted city. A moment of devastating violence shatters the group, and changes the direction of everyone's story.
Take Me on a Journey
Spring is the time to think about going on a journey. Enjoy the sun and some
armchair travel with a difference.
The Old Ways: a journey on foot Robert MacFarlane
Robert MacFarlane estimates that he has walked between 8,000 and 9,600 kms
on his walking journeys around the UK and side trips to Spain, Palestine and Tibet. The author has a very astute understanding of the places that he visits. His writing presents a sensory experience with the geography, flora, fauna and history coming alive as he walks. The language used in this book is a pleasure to read and clearly shows a thoughtful person with a deep connection to the land. A classic.
A - Z of Hell: Ross Kemp's How Not to Travel the World Ross Kemp
Ross Kemp is a journalist who has a taste for danger. He visits places that would not be on the average bucket list like Columbia, Russia, Congo, Venezuela and Afghanistan. The locals that he encounters are drug lords, prisoners, rapists and murderers. While the content is confronting his writing style is easy to read with chapters linking people and places throughout the book. Most of the incidents are really horrible and leave you with no doubt about how he was feeling at the time.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M Pirsig
If you think that this book is going to be a light read about a motorcycle trip out West then this probably isn't the book for you. The zen part of the title is a clue. It is more like a philosophical meander. The author spends some time in a mental hospital and after he returns to society he decides to take an 18 day motorcycle trip with his son. The book is a story of the author's mental past and the motorcycle trip. The story contains large amounts of mundane philosophical background but for any reader that can persevere until the end there are some strong messages and unique perspectives about the world we live in and how we live to be had. A good read for a thinker.
The Turk who Loved Apples Matt Gross
This book is written by a travel writer and while it is part travelogue and part newspaper travel column it is really about the world of the travel writer. This book wanders from trip to trip and from year to year but it does contain some great observations about people, different cultures and places. The author's comments are witty and at times sad. Some readers may not like this book but it does get you thinking about where you have been, what you have done and why.
Geography of Bliss: one grump's search for the happiest places in the world
Eric Weiner is a man of dry humour. This book describes his travels through the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, India, UK and back to US exploring what makes people happy. He eventually comes to the conclusion that their is a correlation between creativity, altruism and happiness.Other observations include that a large proportion of our happiness is dependent on good relationships with other people and that materialistic people are not as happy as non-materialistic people. To find out the other 'secrets' to happiness you will have to read the book.
Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson is an author you either love or hate. He is sometimes cruel, crass, unappealing and drinks a lot of beer. Other readers like his humour and style.
This book was written about 15 years ago and describes the people, towns, traditions and way of life of English town dwellers. It is meandering, nostalgic with many rants about vanishing architecture and the demise of traditions. Sometimes brash and critical but overall a travel comfort read.
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux is always a good read as he focuses on meeting people and learning their stories, lives and culture rather than just the scenery, sites and food. This book takes you on a journey beginning in London and through Europe on the Orient Express across Turkey, Turkmenistan, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Japan then back to London on the Tran Siberian Express. Amongst the people he meets are some interesting literary figures. The handy map in the front of the book lets you follow the route. A delightful read.
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This is a great piece of literature written by a Nobel Prize winner but it is not an easy read. It is one of those books that cannot be skimmed rather you have to read and absorb the words and images. If you can survive the first 50 pages with all the characters you will soon be immersed in the story of the 7 generations of the Buendia family. The book is really a metaphorical interpretation of Colombian history from foundation to contemporary nation. If you like South American literature then this classic is for you.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
Successful surgeon Tomas leave Prague for an operation. There he meets a young photographer named Tereza and brings her back to Prague with him. Tomas is also having an affair with Sabrina. The Soviets then invade Prague and all 3 flee to Switzerland where relationships get more complicated. This book tells the story of the struggle against Communism and the characters messy lives. A different kind of journey.
armchair travel with a difference.
The Old Ways: a journey on foot Robert MacFarlane
Robert MacFarlane estimates that he has walked between 8,000 and 9,600 kmson his walking journeys around the UK and side trips to Spain, Palestine and Tibet. The author has a very astute understanding of the places that he visits. His writing presents a sensory experience with the geography, flora, fauna and history coming alive as he walks. The language used in this book is a pleasure to read and clearly shows a thoughtful person with a deep connection to the land. A classic.
A - Z of Hell: Ross Kemp's How Not to Travel the World Ross Kemp
Ross Kemp is a journalist who has a taste for danger. He visits places that would not be on the average bucket list like Columbia, Russia, Congo, Venezuela and Afghanistan. The locals that he encounters are drug lords, prisoners, rapists and murderers. While the content is confronting his writing style is easy to read with chapters linking people and places throughout the book. Most of the incidents are really horrible and leave you with no doubt about how he was feeling at the time. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M Pirsig
If you think that this book is going to be a light read about a motorcycle trip out West then this probably isn't the book for you. The zen part of the title is a clue. It is more like a philosophical meander. The author spends some time in a mental hospital and after he returns to society he decides to take an 18 day motorcycle trip with his son. The book is a story of the author's mental past and the motorcycle trip. The story contains large amounts of mundane philosophical background but for any reader that can persevere until the end there are some strong messages and unique perspectives about the world we live in and how we live to be had. A good read for a thinker.The Turk who Loved Apples Matt Gross
This book is written by a travel writer and while it is part travelogue and part newspaper travel column it is really about the world of the travel writer. This book wanders from trip to trip and from year to year but it does contain some great observations about people, different cultures and places. The author's comments are witty and at times sad. Some readers may not like this book but it does get you thinking about where you have been, what you have done and why.Geography of Bliss: one grump's search for the happiest places in the world
Eric Weiner is a man of dry humour. This book describes his travels through the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, India, UK and back to US exploring what makes people happy. He eventually comes to the conclusion that their is a correlation between creativity, altruism and happiness.Other observations include that a large proportion of our happiness is dependent on good relationships with other people and that materialistic people are not as happy as non-materialistic people. To find out the other 'secrets' to happiness you will have to read the book.Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson is an author you either love or hate. He is sometimes cruel, crass, unappealing and drinks a lot of beer. Other readers like his humour and style.This book was written about 15 years ago and describes the people, towns, traditions and way of life of English town dwellers. It is meandering, nostalgic with many rants about vanishing architecture and the demise of traditions. Sometimes brash and critical but overall a travel comfort read.
Paul Theroux is always a good read as he focuses on meeting people and learning their stories, lives and culture rather than just the scenery, sites and food. This book takes you on a journey beginning in London and through Europe on the Orient Express across Turkey, Turkmenistan, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Japan then back to London on the Tran Siberian Express. Amongst the people he meets are some interesting literary figures. The handy map in the front of the book lets you follow the route. A delightful read.One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This is a great piece of literature written by a Nobel Prize winner but it is not an easy read. It is one of those books that cannot be skimmed rather you have to read and absorb the words and images. If you can survive the first 50 pages with all the characters you will soon be immersed in the story of the 7 generations of the Buendia family. The book is really a metaphorical interpretation of Colombian history from foundation to contemporary nation. If you like South American literature then this classic is for you.The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
Successful surgeon Tomas leave Prague for an operation. There he meets a young photographer named Tereza and brings her back to Prague with him. Tomas is also having an affair with Sabrina. The Soviets then invade Prague and all 3 flee to Switzerland where relationships get more complicated. This book tells the story of the struggle against Communism and the characters messy lives. A different kind of journey.
Books in the news... 5-6 September
Check out these new fiction and non -fiction titles from 5-6 September Spectrum, you can request them from the Library.
The Absent Therapist by Will Eaves
The Absent Therapist is a book of soundings, a jostle of voices that variously argue, remember, explain, justify, speculate and meander. Sons and lovers, wanderers, stayers, leavers, readers and believers: 'the biggest surprise of all is frequently that things and people really are as they seem.
Make me by Lee Child
“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.
Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.
Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.
The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory
Why would a woman marry a serial killer?
Because she cannot refuse...
Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives - King Henry VIII - commands her to marry him.
Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn's trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent.
But is this enough to keep her safe? A leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of her own. But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry's dangerous gaze turns on her.The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse her of heresy - the punishment is death by fire and the king's name is on the warrant...
From an author who has described all of Henry's queens comes a deeply intimate portrayal of the last: a woman who longed for passion, power and education at the court of a medieval killer.
Honour, Duty, Courage by Mohamed Khadra
When old friends Jack and Tom volunteer for the army medical corps, both men are unaware that their lives are about to change forever. Jack is a first-class vascular surgeon with a strong sense of duty to his country, and Tom a highly respected anaesthetist with a young child. Given 48 hours to deploy, they leave behind their comfortable lives – and the petty rivalries and mindless bureaucracy of the Victoria Hospital – for a war zone where their emotional and psychological strength will be tested to the limit. Who can they trust when even young children are potential suicide bombers, and insurgents could be within their very ranks? Will they both return? And if so, will they be able to take up their lives where they left off?
Honour, Duty, Courage is the culmination of Mohamed Khadra's countless interviews with doctors and nurses who have served in the Australian military. Their stories have been dramatised and identifying characteristics altered to maintain confidentiality, but their duty, their compassion and their honour have been preserved. The result is a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and leave you in awe of the heroism of our medical corps.
Smoke and Mirrors by Robin Bowles
Stuart Rattle and Michael O’Neill were the perfect couple. Country boys from working-class backgrounds, they became bon vivants and lovers, the envy of all their friends – until tragedy struck.
Stuart Rattle was at the peak of his design career, feted and entertained by hosts whose invitations were gold. His ‘Rattle’ interiors were his ticket into this exclusive lifestyle.
Michael O’Neill, his loyal and loving partner, employee, dogsbody and whipping boy, was always three steps behind, never in the limelight. In the words of Paul Bangay, the international garden designer and Stuart’s former partner, ‘Michael really had to fit into Stuart’s way of life ... Stuart had a definite style and lifestyle, and Michael took on that persona.’
It worked for sixteen years, until the fateful morning when Michael violently killed Stuart as he lay in bed. He tucked him neatly back in and brought him cups of tea, takeaway curries and glasses of wine, trying to convince himself he hadn’t committed this terrible deed. They even watched TV together.
Five days later, Michael tried to preserve his much-loved partner’s dignity by setting fire to their apartment.
How did it all go wrong? Smoke and Mirrors is the tragic life-and-death story behind the headlines.
Doujon's Heart by Greg Callaghan & Ian Cutherbertson
When 20-year-old Australian Doujon Zammit was bashed by bouncers on a Greek island in July 2008, his tragic story made headlines in both Australia and Greece. Doujon had sustained terrible head injuries and would not recover. His grief-stricken parents, Oliver and Rosemarie, honoured Doujon's previous wish to be an organ donor, and Oliver became famous overnight in Australia and in Greece when he announced that Doujon's organs would be donated to Greek recipients.
The day Doujon received his fatal injuries was also the day 31-year-old Greek-Australian journalist Kosta Gribilas was given a death sentence in a hospital in Athens. Critically ill with virus-induced heart failure, he was told he had only two weeks to live. Without an urgent transplant, Kosta knew he would soon die. He'd followed Doujon's story on TV, and even as he watched Oliver's emotional announcement, Kosta hadn't thought he might be saved - the doctors didn't want to give him false hope. On 2 August, after an emotional farewell to partner Poppy and his family and friends, Kosta drifted asleep for what he thought was going to be the last time. A day later he woke up with Doujon's heart beating in his chest and the life he'd longed for now ahead of him.
Because of the public nature of Doujon's fatal attack, Kosta met Rosemarie and Oliver when they visited Athens. It was to be the beginning of an extraordinary, heartwarming friendship that would sustain both families through the dark days to come - a roller-coaster course of events neither family could have possibly predicted. Through all this, Kosta is constantly reminded of Doujon's remarkable gift: 'How can I ever forget Doujon, when every heartbeat reminds me how blessed I am?'
A beautiful, inspiring story about two families united by tragedy and how a selfless and courageous gift of love keeps on giving to this day.
The Absent Therapist is a book of soundings, a jostle of voices that variously argue, remember, explain, justify, speculate and meander. Sons and lovers, wanderers, stayers, leavers, readers and believers: 'the biggest surprise of all is frequently that things and people really are as they seem.
Make me by Lee Child“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.
Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.
Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.
Why would a woman marry a serial killer?
Because she cannot refuse...
Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives - King Henry VIII - commands her to marry him.
Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn's trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent.
But is this enough to keep her safe? A leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of her own. But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry's dangerous gaze turns on her.The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse her of heresy - the punishment is death by fire and the king's name is on the warrant...
From an author who has described all of Henry's queens comes a deeply intimate portrayal of the last: a woman who longed for passion, power and education at the court of a medieval killer.
When old friends Jack and Tom volunteer for the army medical corps, both men are unaware that their lives are about to change forever. Jack is a first-class vascular surgeon with a strong sense of duty to his country, and Tom a highly respected anaesthetist with a young child. Given 48 hours to deploy, they leave behind their comfortable lives – and the petty rivalries and mindless bureaucracy of the Victoria Hospital – for a war zone where their emotional and psychological strength will be tested to the limit. Who can they trust when even young children are potential suicide bombers, and insurgents could be within their very ranks? Will they both return? And if so, will they be able to take up their lives where they left off?
Honour, Duty, Courage is the culmination of Mohamed Khadra's countless interviews with doctors and nurses who have served in the Australian military. Their stories have been dramatised and identifying characteristics altered to maintain confidentiality, but their duty, their compassion and their honour have been preserved. The result is a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and leave you in awe of the heroism of our medical corps.
Stuart Rattle and Michael O’Neill were the perfect couple. Country boys from working-class backgrounds, they became bon vivants and lovers, the envy of all their friends – until tragedy struck.
Stuart Rattle was at the peak of his design career, feted and entertained by hosts whose invitations were gold. His ‘Rattle’ interiors were his ticket into this exclusive lifestyle.
Michael O’Neill, his loyal and loving partner, employee, dogsbody and whipping boy, was always three steps behind, never in the limelight. In the words of Paul Bangay, the international garden designer and Stuart’s former partner, ‘Michael really had to fit into Stuart’s way of life ... Stuart had a definite style and lifestyle, and Michael took on that persona.’
It worked for sixteen years, until the fateful morning when Michael violently killed Stuart as he lay in bed. He tucked him neatly back in and brought him cups of tea, takeaway curries and glasses of wine, trying to convince himself he hadn’t committed this terrible deed. They even watched TV together.
Five days later, Michael tried to preserve his much-loved partner’s dignity by setting fire to their apartment.
How did it all go wrong? Smoke and Mirrors is the tragic life-and-death story behind the headlines.
Doujon's Heart by Greg Callaghan & Ian Cutherbertson
When 20-year-old Australian Doujon Zammit was bashed by bouncers on a Greek island in July 2008, his tragic story made headlines in both Australia and Greece. Doujon had sustained terrible head injuries and would not recover. His grief-stricken parents, Oliver and Rosemarie, honoured Doujon's previous wish to be an organ donor, and Oliver became famous overnight in Australia and in Greece when he announced that Doujon's organs would be donated to Greek recipients.The day Doujon received his fatal injuries was also the day 31-year-old Greek-Australian journalist Kosta Gribilas was given a death sentence in a hospital in Athens. Critically ill with virus-induced heart failure, he was told he had only two weeks to live. Without an urgent transplant, Kosta knew he would soon die. He'd followed Doujon's story on TV, and even as he watched Oliver's emotional announcement, Kosta hadn't thought he might be saved - the doctors didn't want to give him false hope. On 2 August, after an emotional farewell to partner Poppy and his family and friends, Kosta drifted asleep for what he thought was going to be the last time. A day later he woke up with Doujon's heart beating in his chest and the life he'd longed for now ahead of him.
Because of the public nature of Doujon's fatal attack, Kosta met Rosemarie and Oliver when they visited Athens. It was to be the beginning of an extraordinary, heartwarming friendship that would sustain both families through the dark days to come - a roller-coaster course of events neither family could have possibly predicted. Through all this, Kosta is constantly reminded of Doujon's remarkable gift: 'How can I ever forget Doujon, when every heartbeat reminds me how blessed I am?'
A beautiful, inspiring story about two families united by tragedy and how a selfless and courageous gift of love keeps on giving to this day.
Davitt Awards 2015 winners
Sisters in Crime has announced the winners of the 2015 Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women.
Adult Novel winner:
Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare but she is paying a price for the illusion of perfection. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for a nanny. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. These three women are at different crossroads, but they will all wind up in the same shocking place.
Young Adult Novel winner:
Sparks fly when Watts follows Mycroft to London in this second sophisticated thriller about the teen crime-fighting pair.Rachel is still getting used to the idea of Mycroft being her boyfriend when he disappears to London with Professor Walsh. They're investigating the carjacking death of the rare books conservator, which appears to be linked to the theft of a Shakespeare First Folio from the Bodleian Library. Worried about similarities between the conservator's accident and the death of Mycroft's own parents, Rachel follows Mycroft to London . and straight into a whole storm of trouble.
Children’s Novel winner:
Withering-by-Sea byJudith Rossell
High on a cliff above the gloomy coastal town of Withering-by-Sea stands the Hotel Majestic. Inside the walls of the damp, dull hotel, eleven-year-old orphan Stella Montgomery leads a miserable life with her three dreadful Aunts.
But one night, Stella sees something she shouldn't have ... Something that will set in motion an adventure more terrifying and more wonderful than she could ever have hoped for ...
From hugely talented Australian writer-illustrator Judith Rossell comes a thrilling and gripping Victorian fantasy-adventure, the first in an extraordinarily exciting new series.
Non Fiction Winner:
Last Woman Hanged by Caroline Overington
In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of ten children, became the first woman hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol and the last woman hanged in New South Wales. Both of Louisa's husbands died suddenly. the Crown was convinced that Louisa poisoned them with arsenic and, to the horror of many in the legal community, put her on trial an extraordinary FOUR tIMES in order to get a conviction. Louisa protested her innocence until the end. Now, in Last Woman Hanged, writer and journalist Caroline Overington delves into the archives to re-examine the original, forensic reports, court documents, judges notebooks, witness statements and police and gaol records, in an effort to discover the truth.
Much of the evidence against Louisa was circumstantial. Some of the most important testimony was given by her only daughter, May, who was just 10-years-old when asked to take the stand.
the historical context is also important: Louisa Collins was hanged at a time when women were in no sense equal under the law - except when it came to the gallows.
Debut novel winner:
Kat Jones is woken by an Intruder looming over her bed. She's saved by Edwina – the neighbour Kat believes betrayed her dying mother.
Her dad issues an ultimatum. Either spend nights next door, or accept another Intruder in her life – Hercules, the world's ugliest guard dog. It's a no-brainer, even for dog-phobic Kat.
When she meets adorkable Al at the dog park, finally Kat has someone to talk to, someone who cares.
But the prowler isn't finished with Kat. To stop him, she needs Edwina's help . . . and what Kat learns could mend fences – or break her fragile family apart forever.
Adult Novel Short list
Forbidden Fruit: A Nell Forrest Mystery by Ilsa Evans
Young Adult Shortlist
The Astrologer’s Daughter by Rebecca Lim
Childrens novel Shortlist
The Adventures of Stunt Boy and His Amazing Wonder Dog Blindfold by Lollie Barr
Kitten Kaboodle Mission 1: The Catier Emerald by Eileen O’Hely
Friday Barnes: Big Trouble by R A Spratt
Truly Tan #4: Freaked! by Jen Storer
The Adventures of Stunt Boy and His Amazing Wonder Dog Blindfold by Lollie Barr
Kitten Kaboodle Mission 1: The Catier Emerald by Eileen O’Hely
Friday Barnes: Big Trouble by R A Spratt
Truly Tan #4: Freaked! by Jen Storer
Non Fiction Shortlist
Debut Novel Shortlist
The Ratcatcher’s Daughter by Pamela Rushby
Tell Me Why by Sandi Wallace
The Tainted Trial of Farah Jama by Julie Szego
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