RRL Book Club

Book List + Descriptions

# New for 2016

Nick HORNBY, ABOUT A BOY (278 pages) - Will is 36, comfortable and child-free. And he's

discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve

and a little bit nerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than

Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age.

Mark TWAIN, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (384 pages) - Climb

aboard the raft with Huck and Jim and drift away from the "sivilized" life and into a world of

adventure, excitement, danger, and self-discovery.

Clive HAMILTON, AFFLUENZA (194 pages) - Anyone concerned about the level of their

personal debt or frustrated by the rat race of aspiring to an affluent lifestyle will appreciate this

critique of the effects of over-consumption. This analysis pulls no punches as it describes both the

problem and what can be done to stop it.

Tony PARK, AFRICAN SKY (380 pages) - Paul Bryant hasn't been able to get back in a

plane since a fatal bombing mission over Germany. So, instead, the Squadron Leader is flying a

desk at a pilot training school at Kumalo Air Base. But one of his trainees has just been reported

missing.

Paul COELHO, THE ALCHEMIST (192 pages) - The Alchemist is an allegorical novel first

published in 1988. It follows Santiago, a young boy Spanish shepherd, on a journey to fulfill his

Personal Legend. It has been hailed as a modern classic. The plot is inspired by Jorge Luis

Borges' short story: Tale of two dreamers.

Anna FUNDER, ALL THAT I AM (370 pages) – When Hitler comes to power in 1933, a tight-

knit group of friends and lovers become hunted outlaws overnight. United in their resistance to the

madness and tyranny of Nazism, they must flee the country to London.

# Anthony DOERR, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE (530 pages) - Set during

World War II Europe, this novel is sobering without being sentimental. The tension builds as the

alternating, parallel stories of Werner and Marie-Laure unfold, and their paths cross.

Anne TYLER, THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE (352 pages) - Marrying quickly during World

War II after falling in love at first sight, a mismatched couple discovers that their different

personalities and approaches to life are taking a toll on their relationship and their family.

Daisy GOODWIN, THE AMERICAN HEIRESS (468 pages) - Presents the story of

vivacious Cora Cash, whose early twentieth-century marriage to England's most eligible duke is

overshadowed by his secretive nature and the traps and betrayals of London's social scene.

Garth STEIN, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN (321 pages) - Enzo knows he is

different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with

opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television and by listening closely to the

words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. On the night before his death,

Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through, hoping, in his

next life, to return as a human.

Dai SIJIE, BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS (172 pages)-

Two hapless city boys are exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China's

infamous Cultural Revolution. There they meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a

hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation.

Laline PAULL, THE BEES (344 pages) - A member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive,

Flora 717, due to her courage and strength, finds her way into the Queen's inner sanctum where

she discovers secrets about the hive that cause her to challenge authority and perform unthinkable

acts.

Lauren OLIVER, BEFORE I FALL (344 pages) - After she dies in a car crash, teenager

Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally

discovers a way to save herself.

S. J. WATSON, BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP (366 pages) - Each day, Christine wakes

knowing nothing of her life. Each night, her mind erases the day. But before she goes to sleep, she

will recover fragments from her past, flashbacks to the accident that damaged her, and then—

mercifully—she will forget.

Ann PATCHETT, BEL CANTO (352 pages) - Somewhere in South America, at the home of

the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honour of Mr. Hosokawa, a

powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized

the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding

terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage….

Dean KOONTZ, A BIG LITTLE LIFE : A MEMOIR OF A JOYFUL DOG (269

pages) - Dean had always wanted a dog—he has even written several books in which dogs are

featured. But not until Trixie arrived in his life, was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful

creature could bring about in him.

James ELLROY, THE BLACK DAHLIA (383 pages) - The murder of a beautiful young

woman in 1947 Los Angeles sparks a great investigation in which Bucky Bleichert, Lee Blanchard,

L.A.P.D. Warrants Squad cops, ex-boxers, friends, and adversaries become obsessed by the

case.

Colm TOIBIN, BLACKWATER LIGHTSHIP (272 pages) – With AIDS about to claim a

well-loved young man, three generations of his family are reunited at his bedside in Ireland, in a

novel that explores the nature of love and the complex interrelationships among family members.

Margaret ATWOOD, THE BLIND ASSASSIN (632 pages) – This is an award winning novel

which opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura

drove a car off a bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in

1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader

expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel.

Anita AMIRREZVANI, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS (376 pages) - After her father dies

without leaving her with a dowry, a seventeenth-century Persian teen becomes a servant to her

wealthy rug designer uncle in the court of Shah Abbas the Great, where her weaving talents prove

both a blessing and curse.

Michelle LOVRIC, THE BOOK OF HUMAN SKIN (500 pages) - 1784, Venice. Miniguillo

Fasan claws his way out of his mother’s womb. The magnificent Palazzo Espagnol, built on New

World drugs and silver, has an heir. Twelve years later Minguillo uncovers a threat to his

inheritance: a sister. His jealousy will condemn her to a series of fates as a cripple, a madwoman

and a nun.

Jonathan TROPPER, THE BOOK OF JOE (338 pages) - a young writer named Joe

Goffman, whose sizzling first novel savaged everyone in his Connecticut hometown, then became

a huge hit movie. Of course, Joe never planned on going home again. Until now.

Tess EVANS, BOOK OF LOST THREADS (350 pages) – Tender, funny and memorable,

Book of Lost Threads is a story about love and loss, parents and children, hope, faith and the value

of simple kindness.

Markus ZUSAK, THE BOOK THIEF (584 pages) - Set during World War II in Germany, The

Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches

out a meagre existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–

books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her

stolen books with her neighbours during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in

her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of

books to feed the soul.

Asne SEIERSTAD, THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL (276 pages) – After living for three

months with the Kabul bookseller Sultan Khan in the spring of 2002, Norwegian journalist

Seierstad penned this astounding portrait of a nation recovering from war, undergoing political flux

and mired in misogyny and poverty.

John BOYNE, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS (216 pages) - A story of

innocence existing within the most terrible evil, this is the fictional tale of two young boys caught up

in events entirely beyond their control.

Tim WINTON, BREATH (264 pages) - Falling under the spell of an enigmatic extreme-sports

surfer, a thrill-seeking pair of western Australian adolescents is initiated into a world of high-stakes

adventures and dangerous boundary testing.

Monica ALI, BRICK LANE (492 pages) - Monica Ali's gorgeous first novel is the deeply

moving story of one woman, Nazneen, born in a Bangladeshi village and transported to London at

age eighteen to enter into an arranged marriage. Gradually she is transformed by her experience,

and begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny.

Evelyn WAUGH, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED (326 pages) - Charles Ryder, a lonely

student at Oxford, is captivated by the outrageous and decadent Sebastian Flyte. Invited to

Brideshead, Sebastian's magnificent family home, Charles welcomes the attentions of its eccentric,

aristocratic inhabitants, gradually becoming infatuated with them and the life of privilege they

inhabit.

Hannah KENT, BURIAL RITES (352 pages) - Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah

Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former

master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

SOUAD, BURNED ALIVE (210 pages) - A memoir by a young Jordanian woman who was the

victim of an "honour crime" describes how she was nearly killed by her own family, her struggle to

survive critical burns after being set on fire, and her determination to build a new life for herself.

Michael McGIRR, BYPASS (307 pages) - In a work of creative non-fiction which is a tantalising

mixture of memoir, travel story, social history, road story and romance, he reveals his affectionate

obsession with the Hume Highway and the stories it carries with it, whilst he also details his own

personal and spiritual journey.

Geraldine BROOKS, CALEB’S CROSSING (306 pages) - Growing up in the tiny settlement

of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans, Bethia Mayfield yearns for an

education that is closed to her due to her gender. As soon as she can, she slips away to explore

the island's glistening beaches and observes its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she

encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a secret friendship that draws

each into the alien world of the other.

J. K. ROWLING, THE CASUAL VACANCY (512 pages) – When Barry Fairborther dies

unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is not what it

first seems, and the empty seat left by Barry on the town’s council soon becomes the catalyst for

the biggest war the town has yet seen. Rowling’s first novel for adults is blackly comic, thought-

provoking and constantly surprising.

# P. D. JAMES, THE CHILDREN OF MEN (241 pages) - The year is 2021. The country is

under the absolute rule of the Warden. Then by chance, Theo Faron meets a young woman who

seeks to challenge the power of the Warden's regime.

Edwidge DANTICAT, CLAIRE OF THE SEA LIGHT (256 pages) - The interconnected

secrets of a coastal Haitian town are revealed when one little girl, the daughter of a fisherman,

goes missing.

Stella GIBBONS, COLD COMFORT FARM (233 pages) - Flora Poste, a recently orphaned

socialite, moves in with her country relatives, the gloomy Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm, and

becomes enmeshed in a web of violent emotions, despair, and scheming, until Flora manages to

set things right. A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas, it is one of the best-loved

comic novels of all time.

Olive Ann BURNS, COLD SASSY TREE (391 pages) - Cold Sassy Tree is a 1984 novel by

Olive Ann Burns. Set in a fictional Georgia town called Cold Sassy during 1905-1906, it follows the

life of young Will Tweedy, and explores themes such as religion, death, and social taboos. It is

light, funny and tender.

Gabrielle ZEVIN, THE COLLECTED WORKS OF A.J. FIKRY (243 pages) - When his

most prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, is stolen, bookstore owner A. J. Fikry

begins isolating himself from his friends, family and associates before receiving a mysterious

package that compels him to remake his life.

Emily Gray TEDROWE, COMMUTERS (378 pages) - At seventy-eight, Winnie Easton has

finally found love again with Jerry Trevis, a wealthy Chicago businessman. But their decision to

buy one of the town's biggest houses ignites anger and scepticism—as children and grandchildren

take drastic actions to secure their own futures and endangered inheritances.

Mark HADDON, THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

(268 pages) - Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a

mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a

neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

Christopher MORGAN, CURRAWALLI STREET (296 pages) - With simplicity and great

beauty, Currawalli Street reveals the echoes between past and present through the story of one

ordinary street and its families, from the pre-war innocence of early 1914 to the painful and grim

consequences of the Vietnam War.

William LANDY, DEFENDING JACOB (488 pages) - Andy Barber has been an assistant

district attorney for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the

courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime

shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next. His fourteen-year-old

son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.

Ruth REICHL, DELICIOUS! (374 pages) - Working as a public relations hotline consultant for

a once-prestigious culinary magazine, Billie Breslin unexpectedly enters a world of New York

restaurateurs and artisanal purveyors while reading World War II letters exchanged between a

plucky twelve-year-old and the legendary chef James Beard.

Anne TYLER, DIGGING TO AMERICA (330 pages) - A powerful novel of America's melting

pot. Brought together by international adoptions, two family's lives intertwine and illuminate

America's cultural spectrum and all its universalities of human nature

Herman KOCH, THE DINNER (304 pages) - A summer's evening in Amsterdam and two

couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate

scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness. But the empty words hide

a terrible conflict and, with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being

sharpened...

Tim WINTON, DIRT MUSIC (461 pages) - Georgie Jutland is a mess. At forty, with her career

in ruins, she finds herself stranded in White Point with a fisherman she doesn't love and two kids

whose dead mother she can never replace.

J.M. COETZEE, DISGRACE (224 pages) – The Booker Prize winner in 1999, Disgrace is the

story of a South African professor of English descent who loses everything: his reputation, his job,

his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to

protect his cherished daughter.

Jean-Dominique BAUBY, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (139 pages) –

The diary of Jean-Dominique Bauby who, with his left eyelid (the only surviving muscle after a

massive stroke) dictated a remarkable book about his experiences locked inside his body.

Alice HOFFMAN, THE DOVEKEEPERS (504 pages) - A tale inspired by the tragic first-

century massacre of hundreds of Jewish people at Masada presents the stories of a hated

daughter, a baker's wife, a girl disguised as a warrior, and a medicine woman who keep doves and

secrets while Roman soldiers draw near.

Barack OBAMA, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER (442 pages) - In this lyrical,

unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American

mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American.

Rosalie HAM, THE DRESSMAKER (296 pages) - Peopled with exotic characters, this is a

story of love, hate and haute couture, set in a country town that's disconcerting to visit but a bitingly

comedic and heart-breaking place to live.

# Chris STEWART, DRIVING OVER LEMONS : AN OPTIMIST IN ANDALUCIA (256 p.) – A warm, funny account of a British family's attempt to make a home in southern Spain

follows the first drummer for the rock band Genesis as he heads for Andalucia with his wife and

kids

Elizabeth GILBERT, EAT PRAY LOVE (335 pages) - Traces the author's decision to quit her

job and travel the world for a year after suffering a midlife crisis and divorce, a journey that took her

to three places in her quest to explore her own nature and learn the art of spiritual balance.

Muriel BARBERY, THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG (320 pages) - The book

follows events in the life of a concierge, Renée Michel, whose deliberately concealed intelligence is

uncovered by an unstable but intellectually precocious girl named Paloma. Paloma and Renee

hide their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not

appreciate them. But everything changes when a new tenant arrives, a wealthy Japanese man

named Ozu.

Will SCHWALBE, THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB (336 pages) - This is the

inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as

her life comes to a close.

Murray BAIL, EUCALYPTUS (254 pages) - A fable-like novel from prize-winning Australian

writer Bail poses an age-old question: How do you win a woman's heart?

Lily KING, EUPHORIA (261 pages) - Frustrated by his research efforts and depressed over the

death of his brothers, Andre Banson runs into two fellow anthropologists, a married couple, in

1930s New Guinea and begins a tumultuous relationship with them.

Ian RANKIN, EXIT MUSIC (448 pages) - (Inspector Rebus novel) It's late autumn in Edinburgh

and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose

ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes…

# Sofie LAGUNA, THE EYE OF THE SHEEP (308 pages) Meet Jimmy Flick. He's not

like other kids. He finds a lot of the adult world impossible to understand - especially why

his Dad gets so angry with him.

Toni JORDON, FALL GIRL (232 pages) – Della Gilmore has been conning people since she

was a child. Now she is attempting to pull off the biggest coup of her career.

# Thomas HARDY, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (433 pages) - After an

unfortunate marriage to Sergeant Troy and an affair with Farmer Boldwood, Bathsheba Everdene

finally becomes the wife of the man who has always loved her.

John GREEN, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (322 pages) - Despite the tumour-shrinking

medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her

final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters

suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Liam PIEPER, THE FEEL GOOD HIT OF THE YEAR (253 pages) - a memoir about

family, addiction and learning how to live with yourself, from a sharp and original new Australian

voice.

Sularai GENTILL, A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN (346 pages) – In Australia’s 1930s,

the Sinclair name is respectable and influential, yet the youngest son Rowland – an artist – has a

talent for scandal. Mounting political tensions fuelled by the Great Depression take Australia to the

brink of revolution. Rowland is indifferent to the politics, until a brutal murder exposes an

extraordinary and treasonous conspiracy.

# Sarah WATERS, FINGERSMITH (582 pages) - Growing up as a foster child among a family

of thieves, orphan Sue Trinder hopes to pay back that kindness by playing a key role in a swindle

scheme devised by their leader, who is planning to con a fortune out of the naive Maud Lilly.

Geraldine BROOKS, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE (244 pages) - The leap between

dreamy child living in a provincial Australian neighbourhood and journalist hopscotching through

war zones is massive. In Foreign Correspondence, Geraldine Brooks unravels the rope that pulled

and tugged her toward adventure and away from "a very small world" where her family had no car

and had never boarded a plane or placed an international phone call.

Maxine BENEBA-CLARKE, FOREIGN SOIL (265 pages) - In Melbourne's Western Suburbs,

in a dilapidated block of flats overhanging the rattling Footscray train-lines, a young black mother is

working on a collection of stories.

Kate MORTON, THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN (554 pages) - On the night of her twenty-

first birthday, Nell O'Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she

embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange

and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.

A. B. FACEY, A FORTUNATE LIFE (422 pages) - This is the extraordinary life of an

ordinary man. It is the story of Albert Facey, who lived with simple honesty, compassion and

courage.

Liz BYRSKI, GANG OF FOUR (399 pages) - Gang of Four is a very different coming-of-age

story in that the protagonists are all in their fifties. Author Liz Byrski does a superb job of crafting

four very different stories which overlap, diverge and merge again throughout the book.

# M. R. CAREY, THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (460 pages) - Not every gift is a

blessing. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for

her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointed at her while two of his people strap her into the

wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh.

Melanie is a very special girl.

Stieg LARSSON, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (533 pages) - Journalist

Mikael Blomkvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger,

which took place forty years ago.

Jeanette WALLS, THE GLASS CASTLE (341 pages) – A successful journalist, Jeanette

Walls, relates the horrific childhood she experienced being raised by alcoholic, manipulative, and

selfish parents. What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and

tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and

generosity.

Arundhati ROY, THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS (336 pages) - Tells the story of one very

fractured family from the southernmost tip of India. Here is an unhappy family unhappy in its own

way, and through flashbacks and flashforwards The God of Small Things unfolds the secrets of

these characters' unhappiness.

Gillian FLYNN, GONE GIRL (463 pages) - When a woman goes missing on her fifth wedding

anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage, while her husband, desperate to

clear himself of suspicion, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have

occurred.

Charles DICKENS, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (575 pages) - On Christmas Eve, young Pip,

an orphan being raised by his sister and her husband, encounters a convict in the village

churchyard. The man, who has escaped from a prison ship, scares Pip into stealing him some food

and a file to grind away his leg shackle. This incident is crucial: firstly, it gives Pip, who must steal

the goods from his sister's house, his first taste of true guilt, and secondly, Pip's kindness warms

the convict's heart. The convict, however, waits many years to truly show his gratitude.

F. Scott FITZGERALD, THE GREAT GATSBY (169 pages) - Jay Gatsby is the man who

has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Set in 1920’s America.

Mary Ann SHAFFER and Annie BARROWS, THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND

POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY (290 pages)- January 1946: London is emerging from the

shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject.

Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the

island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

# Helen MACDONALD, H IS FOR HAWK (320 pages) - Recounts how the author, an

experienced falconer grieving the sudden death of her father, endeavored to train for the first time

a dangerous goshawk predator as part of her personal recovery.

Chimamanda Ngozi ADICHIE, HALF OF A YELLOW SUN (543 pages) – When the Igbo

people of eastern Nigeria seceded in 1967 to form the independent nation of Biafra, a bloody,

crippling three-year civil war followed. Adichie tells her profoundly gripping story primarily through

the eyes and lives of Ugwu, a 13-year-old peasant houseboy who survives conscription into the

raggedy Biarfran army, and twin sisters Olanna and Kainene, who are from a wealthy and well-

connected family.

Anthony QUINN, HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE (349 pages) – Summer of 1911. The

streets of London ring with cheers for a new king’s coronation and the cries of increasingly violent

suffragette protests. Connie Callaway, fired up by the possibilities of independence, wants more

than the conventional comforts of marriage. Will Maitland, the rising star of county cricket, is a

man of traditional opinions. Buffeted and spun by choice and chance, their lives become

inextricably entangled.

William POWERS, HAMLET’S BLACKBERRY (267 pages) - A crisp, passionately argued

answer to the question that everyone who’s grown dependent on digital devices is asking: Where’s

the rest of my life? Hamlet’s BlackBerry challenges the widely held assumption that the more we

connect through technology, the better.

Ahn DO, THE HAPPIEST REFUGEE (229 pages) - The laugh-out-loud, reach-for-your-

hanky story of one of Australia's best-loved comedians.

Samantha TIDY, THE HAPPINESS JAR (334 pages) - Rachel Hudson succumbs to cystic

fibrosis at age twenty-seven, intentionally leaving behind secrets that push each of her remaining

family to question what it is they want from life, and from each other.

Edmund de WAAL, THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES (264 pages) - Wood and ivory

carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he

first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when

Edmund inherited the ‘netsuke’, they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have

imagined…

Sue PIETERS-HAWKE, HAZEL : MY MOTHER’S STORY (429 pages) - Candid,

revealing and fascinating this biography explores Hazel Hawke's life as she navigated challenges

and profound social changes, and celebrates her value as a mother, wife, role model and tireless

worker for the rights and welfare of others.

Sam and Jenny BAILEY, HEAD OVER HEELS (256 pages) – At the age of 19, a young

farmer, Sam Bailey, miscalculated a bend in the road, overturned his ute and became a

quadriplegic. After months of struggle, he learned how to resume his life as a farmer, running a

sheep and cattle property in northwest New South Wales.

Kathryn STOCKETT, THE HELP (464 pages) – Together, three seemingly different women

join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter

their destinies and the life of a small town...

Jill STARK, HIGH SOBRIETY (307 pages) - Booze had dominated Jill Stark’s social life ever

since she had her first sip of beer, at 13. In the shadow of her 35th year, Jill made a decision: she

would give up alcohol. But what would it mean to stop drinking in a world awash with booze?

Peter CAREY, HIS ILLEGAL SELF (270 pages) - His Illegal Self is the story of Che. Raised

in isolated privilege by his New York grandmother, he is the precocious son of radical student

activists at Harvard in the late sixties. This is an achingly beautiful story of the love between a

young woman and a little boy.

# Niall WILLIAMS, HISTORY OF THE RAIN (386 pages) - Ruthie Swain, the bedridden

daughter of a dead poet, tries to find her father through stories -- and through generations of family

history in County Clare.

Bernhard SCHLINK, HOMECOMING (272 pages) - When young, fatherless Peter Debauer

discovers an incomplete story in a volume of fiction, he becomes obsessed with the tale of a

soldier, presumed dead, who returns home after the war.

Jamie FORD, HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET (366 pages) –

Henry is a Chinese American growing up in Seattle during World War II. Henry struggles with his

identity, his stubborn father, and when his best friend, a Japanese American girl, is sent to an

internment camp he has to decide between love and loyalty.

Alain de BOTTON, HOW PROUST CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE (215 pages) -

Drawing from Proust's letters, essays, and fiction, de Botton transforms Proust's life and work into

a no-nonsense guide to life.

Jaclyn MORIARTY, I HAVE A BED MADE OF BUTTERMILK PANCAKES (424

pages) – This is a carefully and cleverly built and extraordinary book of great charm and

originality… [the] narrative is studded with wry and lovely observations on life. It is completely

adorable and whimsical whilst still feeling very reflective of everyday life. It is as if Moriarty has

filtered ordinary events through a romantic, magical lense.

Maya ANGELOU, I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS (309 pages) – In this first

volume of her autobiography, Maya evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American

South of the 1930s.

# Erin Lindsay McCABE, I SHALL BE NEAR TO YOU (320 pages) - Rosetta doesn't

want her new husband Jeremiah to enlist, but he joins up.Though she's always worked by her

father’s side as the son he never had, now that Rosetta is a wife she's told her place is inside with

the other women. But Rosetta decides her true place is with Jeremiah, no matter what that means,

and to be with him she cuts off her hair, hems an old pair of his pants, and signs up as a Union

soldier.

Justin HALPERN, I SUCK AT GIRLS (180 pages) - Presents a humorous collection of

stories about the author's relationships with the opposite sex told chronologically, from his first kiss

to getting engaged. (Language warning)

Niccolao AMMANITI, I’M NOT SCARED (215 pages) - When Michele Amitrano stumbles

onto a boy held prisoner in a hole deep in the Italian countryside, he begins a journey that will lead

him to a series of startling discoveries. I'm Not Scared is a powerful tale of how one boy finds the

courage to overcome his fear, risk his life, and make wrenchingly difficult moral choices.

Kate GRENVILLE, THE IDEA OF PERFECTION (401 pages) - The Idea of Perfection is a

romance between two people who have given up love. Set in rural New South Wales, Douglas

Cheeseman and Harley Savage first clash over the conservation of the old bridge, but eventually a

closer relationship develops.

David MALOUF, AN IMAGINARY LIFE (153 pages) – The Roman poet Ovid, in exile, tells

the story of his encounter with a wild boy, brought up among wolves in the snow.

Rebecca SKLOOT, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS (310 pages) -

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco

farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells – taken without her

knowledge – become one of the most important tools in modern medicine.

# Hannah ROTHSCHILD, THE IMPROBABILITY OF LOVE (416 pages) – Annie leaves

a junk store with a painting. She prepares an elaborate dinner for her boyfriend, only to be stood

up, now the gift is gathering dust on her mantelpiece. But every painting has a story – and if it

could speak, what would it tell us?

Truman CAPOTE, IN COLD BLOOD (343 pages) – In Cold Blood weaves a complicated

psychological story of two parolees who together commit a mass murder of a family in Kansas, an

act they were not capable of individually. Capote's book also details the lives of the victims and the

effect the crime had on the community where they lived.

Annie HAUXWELL, IN HER BLOOD (320 pages) – When investigator Catherine Berlin gets

an anonymous tip-off about a local loan shark, the case seems straightforward – until her informant

is found floating in the Limehouse Basin.

Fiona McGREGOR, INDELIBLE INK (452 pages) - Marie King is fifty-nine, recently divorced,

and has lived a rather conventional life on Sydney’s affluent north shore. Now her three children

have moved out, the family home is to be sold. On a drunken whim, Marie gets a tattoo — an act

that gives way to an unexpected friendship with her tattoo artist, Rhys.

Isabel ALLENDE, INES OF MY SOUL (336 pages)- This magisterial work of historical fiction

recounts the astonishing life of Ines Suarez, a daring Spanish conquistadora who toiled to build the

nation of Chile--and whose vital role has too often been neglected by history.

Ayaan Hirsi ALI, INFIDEL (384 pages) – Ayaan Hirsi Ali captured the world’s attention with

Infidel, her coming-of-age memoir, which spent thirty-one weeks on the New York Times bestseller

list. Her memoir shows the development of beliefs, iron will, and extraordinary determination to

fight injustice of this elegant, distinguished and sometimes reviled political superstar and champion

of free speech.

Francesca SEGAL, THE INNOCENTS (282 pages) - Adam must choose between duty and

passion when, after becoming engaged to Rachel, his girlfriend of twelve years, he finds himself

powerfully drawn to her reckless and beautiful cousin, Ellie, who represents everything that he has

always tried to avoid, but now finds himself longing for.

Claire TOMALIN, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (283 pages) - A portrait of nineteenth-century

actress Ellen Ternan, the woman who was the mistress of Charles Dickens, describing her secret

relationship with the author.

Victoria HISLOP, THE ISLAND (469 pages) - A richly enchanting novel of lives and loves

unfolding against the backdrop of the Mediterranean during World War II, The Island is an

enthralling story of dreams and desires, of secrets desperately hidden, and of leprosy's touch on

an unforgettable family.

Charlotte BRONTE, JANE EYRE (545 pages) - Orphaned into the household of her Aunt

Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless

emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in

love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that

transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a wider and richer life than

Victorian society traditionally allowed.

Craig SILVEY, JASPER JONES (320 pages) - It’s a riveting tale, set in 1960s small-town

Australia, about a young, bookish adolescent who is drawn into events surrounding the grim

disappearance of a local girl when the solitary Jasper Jones, a rebellious mixed-race older boy

comes asking for his help.

# Helen GARNER, JOE CINQUE’S CONSOLATION : A TRUE STORY OF

DEATH, GRIEF AND THE LAW (328 pages) - In October 1997 a clever young law

student at ANU made a bizarre plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party at their

house. Some of the dinner guests-most of them university students-had heard rumours of the plan.

Nobody warned Joe Cinque.

Alex MILLER, JOURNEY TO THE STONE COUNTRY (364 pages) - Betrayed by her

husband, Annabelle Beck retreats from Melbourne to her old family home in tropical North

Queensland where she meets Bo Rennie, one of the Jangga tribe. Intrigued by Bo's claim that he

holds the key to her future, Annabelle sets out with him on a path of recovery that leads back to her

childhood and into the Jangga's ancient heartland.

Vanessa DIFFENBAUGH, THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS (352 pages) – A

mesmerizing, moving and elegantly written debut novel, ‘The Language of Flowers’ beautifully

weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers

helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.

Tracy CHEVALIER, THE LAST RUNAWAY (305 pages) - Forced to leave England and

struggling with illness in the wake of a family tragedy, Quaker Honor Bright is forced to rely on

strangers in the harsh landscape of 1850 Ohio and is compelled to join the Underground Railroad

network to help runaway slaves escape to freedom.

# Kate ATKINSON, LIFE AFTER LIFE (544 pages) - Ursula Todd is born on a cold snowy

night in 1910 -- twice. As she grows up during the first half of the twentieth century in Britain Ursula

dies and is brought back to life again and again. With a seemingly infinite number of lives it

appears as though Ursula has the ability to alter the history of the world, should she so choose.

George DAWSON & Richard GLAUBMAN, LIFE IS SO GOOD (250 pages) – In this

remarkable book, 103-year-old George Dawson, a slave’s grandson who learned to read at age

98, reflects on his life and offers valuable lessons in living as well as a fresh, firsthand view of

America during the twentieth century. Richard Glaubman captures Dawson’s irresistible voice and

view of the world, offering insights into humanity, history, hardships, and happiness.

Yann MARTEL, THE LIFE OF PI (319 pages) – The only survivor from the wreck of a cargo

ship on the Pacific, 16 year old Pi spends 221 days on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra (with a

broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker.

M. L. STEDMAN, THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (352 pages) - After four harrowing

years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse

keeper on Janus Rock. Tom brings a young, bold and loving wife, Isabel to the isolated island.

Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the

wind. A boat has washed up on shore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Laura ESQUIVEL, LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE (222 pages) - Earthy, magical, and

utterly charming, this tale of family life in tum-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling

phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.

Ros MORIARTY, LISTENING TO COUNTRY (232 pages) - The moving and personal

story of one woman's journey into the remote and rugged Tanami Desert with the matriarchs of her

husband's family.

Lily BRETT, LOLA BENSKY (267 pages) - Lola Bensky is a nineteen-year-old rock journalist

who irons her hair straight and asks a lot of questions. A high-school dropout, she's not sure how

she got the job - but she's been sent by her Australian newspaper right to the heart of the London

music scene at the most exciting time in music history: 1967.

John GROGAN, THE LONGEST TRIP HOME (331 pages) - Like Marley & Me, The

Longest Trip Home is a memoir, this time mining material from Grogan's childhood.

Melina MARCHETTA, LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI (261 pages) – Josephine Alibrandi is

seventeen and in her final year at a wealthy girl’s school. This is the year she meets her father,

falls in love, the year she searches for Alibrandi and finds the real truth about her family – and the

identity she has been searching for.

# Brooke DAVIS, LOST AND FOUND (272 pages) - Follows a shared encounter between

an abandoned 7-year-old, a widowed shut-in and a nursing home escapee, who embark on a road

trip across Western Australia to find the child's mother.

Mitchell ZUCKOFF, LOST IN SHANGRI-LA (384 pages) – The untold story of an

extraordinary World War II rescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio

of U.S. military personnel into the jungle-clad land of New Guinea.

Nancy MITFORD, LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE (249 pages) - Set in the privileged world of

the county house party and the London season, the story of coldly beautiful Polly Hampton and her

aristocratic parents is a comedy of English manners between the wars.

Gabriel Garcia MARQUEZ, LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA (348 pages) -

Florentino Ariza has never forgotten his first love. He has waited nearly a lifetime in silence since

his beloved Fermina married another man. No woman can replace her in his heart. But now her

husband is dead…

Alice SEBOLD, THE LOVELY BONES (328 pages) - Our narrator Susie Salmon is already

in heaven. Murdered by a neighbour when she was only fourteen years old, Susie tells us what it is

like to be in her new place.

Jhumpa LAHIRI, THE LOWLAND (339 pages) - Brothers Subhash and Udayan Mitra pursue

vastly different lives--Udayan in rebellion-torn Calcutta, Subhash in a quiet corner of America--until

a shattering tragedy compels Subhash to return to India, where he endeavours to heal family

wounds.

Helen SIMONSON, MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND (388 pages) - When Major

Pettigrew, a retired British army major in a small English village, embarks on an unexpected

friendship with the widowed Mrs. Ali, who runs the local shop, trouble erupts to disturb the bucolic

serenity of the village and of the Major’s carefully regimented life.

# Fredrik BACKMAN, A MAN CALLED OVE (337 pages) - A curmudgeon hides a terrible

personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a

boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.

William McINNES, A MAN’S GOT TO HAVE A HOBBY (281 pages) - An affectionate

stroll down the memory lane of McInnes' childhood with his noisy, nutty, disorganised family.

Li CUNXIN, MAO’S LAST DANCER (490 pages) – Li Cunxin, his parents' sixth son, lived in

a small house with twenty of his relatives. Chosen on the basis of his physique alone, Li Cunxin

was taken from his family when he was eleven and sent to the city for rigorous training with the

Peking Dance Academy. What follows is the story of how a small, terrified, lonely boy became one

of the greatest ballet dancers in the world.

Farahad ZAMA, THE MARRIAGE BUREAU FOR RICH PEOPLE (276 pages) -

What does an Indian man with a wealth of common sense do when his retirement becomes too

monotonous for him to stand? Open a marriage bureau of course!

# Andy WEIR, THE MARTIAN (360 pages) - After a bad storm cuts his team’s Mars mission

short, injured astronaut Mark Watley is stranded. Now he’s got to figure out how to survive without

air, shelter, food, or water on the harsh Martian landscape until the next manned mission in four

years.

Jojo MOYES, ME BEFORE YOU (480 pages) - Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows

how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in

The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps

her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows

everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a

stop to that. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour.

And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Kim EDWARDS, THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER (401 pages) - A doctor

delivers his own twins, and upon seeing that the daughter has Down's syndrome, tells his nurse to

take the baby to an institution and never reveal the secret. The nurse disappears into another city

to raise the child herself in this tale of redemptive love and long-buried secrets that unfolds over a

quarter of a century.

Alice Melike ULGEZER, THE MEMORY OF SALT (320 pages) – Ali’s father is Turkish and

her mother is Australian. This novel is Ali’s coming to terms with this meeting of two cultures that

are at once so similar and so separate.

Jeffery EUGENIDES, MIDDLESEX (529 pages) – This is the story of Calliope Stephanides,

who discovers at the age of fourteen that she is really a he. Cal traces the story of his

transformation and the genetic condition that caused it back to his paternal grandparents, who

happen also to be brother and sister, and the Greek village of Bithynios in Asia Minor.

Karen FOXLEE, THE MIDNIGHT DRESS (327 pages) - Rose, nearly sixteen, is used to

traveling around with her alcoholic father but connects with the people of a small, coastal

Australian town, especially classmate Pearl and reclusive Edie, who teaches her to sew a magical

dress for the Harvest Festival while a mystery unfolds around them.

John BERENDT, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL (386 pages) -

Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981.

Was it murder or self-defence? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated

throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares.

# Jessie BURTON, THE MINIATURIST (400 pages) - A dollhouse whose figures and

furnishings foretell life events, mysterious notes, family secrets and the powerful guild and church

of 1686 Amsterdam. All these elements combine for an engaging story of a young bride’s struggle

to be the ‘architect’ of her own fortune.

Susan ABULHAWA, MORNINGS IN JENIN (338 pages) - This is Amal's story, the story of

one family's struggle and survival through over sixty years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,

carrying us from Jenin to Jerusalem, to Lebanon and the anonymity of America.

Tracy KIDDER, MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS (312 pages) - The true story of a

gifted man who loves the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it. In medical school, Paul

Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of

modern medicine to those who need them most.

Lloyd JONES, MR PIP (256 pages) - Matilda lives on an island somewhere in the Pacific-but

this is no paradise. Civil war is a fact of life, though at first the village is largely left alone by the

soldiers and the rebel fighters. The school is closed but then Mr Watts, the only white man on the

island, steps forward to do what he can to help. He begins by reading Great Expectations aloud to

his students…

George JOHNSTON, MY BROTHER JACK (367 pages) - David and Jack Meredith grow up

in a patriotic suburban Melbourne household during the First World War, and go on to lead lives

that could not be more different.

Joanna RAKOFF, MY SALINGER YEAR (272 pages) – A memoir about literary New York

in the late nineties, a pre-digital world on the cusp of vanishing, where a young woman finds

herself entangled with one of the last great figures of the century.

Jodi PICOULT, MY SISTER’S KEEPER (448 pages) – An emotionally riveting story of a

family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless

surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukaemia

that has plagued her since childhood.

Kazuo ISHIGURO, NEVER LET ME GO (282 pages) - A reunion with two childhood friends--

Ruth and Tommy--draws Kath and her companions on a nostalgic odyssey into the supposedly

idyllic years of their lives at Hailsham, an isolated private school in the serene English countryside,

and a dramatic confrontation with the truth about their childhoods and about their lives in the

present.

Alexander McCALL SMITH, NO.1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY (233 pages) - This

first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series

tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe.

Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a

missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter.

# Cormac McCARTHY, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (309 pages) - Stumbling upon a

bloody massacre, a cache of heroin, and more than $2 million in cash during a hunting trip,

Llewelyn Moss removes the money, a decision that draws him and his young wife into the middle

of a violent confrontation.

Nicholas SPARKS, THE NOTEBOOK (189 pages) - A man with a faded, well-worn notebook

open in his lap. A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn't understand - until he begins to

read to her. The notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of

miracles that will stay with you forever.

Neil GAIMAN, THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE (243 pages) - Presents a

modern fantasy about fear, love, magic, and sacrifice in the story of a family at the mercy of dark

forces, whose only defence is the three women who live on a farm at the end of the lane.

John STEINBECK, OF MICE AND MEN (106 pages) - Drifters in search of work, George

and his simple-minded friend, Lennie, have nothing in the world except each other and a dream – a

dream that one day they will have some land of their own.

Ian McEWAN, ON CHESIL BEACH (166 pages) - Ian McEwan's novel about a disastrous

wedding night brings the grand narrative of history to bear on the small picture of individual lives.

David NICHOLS, ONE DAY (437 pages) – Over twenty years, snapshots of an unlikely

relationship are revealed on the same day of each year.

Caroline OVERINGTON, ONLY IN NEW YORK (245 pages) - An uplifting tale of one

woman juggling her dream job as a foreign correspondent, the demands of 2-year-old twins, a

high-flying husband who can’t get a green card, and all the temptations of life in New York City.

Ceridwen DOVEY, ONLY THE ANIMALS (245 pages) - Ten tales are told by the souls of

animals killed in human conflicts in the past century or so, from a camel in colonial Australia to a

cat in the trenches in World War I.

# Elizabeth STROUT, OLIVE KITTERIDGE (260 pages) - The world of Olive Kitteridge, a

retired school teacher in a small coastal town in Maine, is revealed in stories that explore her

diverse roles in many lives, including a lounge singer haunted by a past love, her stoic husband,

and her own resentful son.

Philippa GREGORY, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (672 pages) - When Mary Boleyn

comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the

king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen....

Chris CLEAVE, THE OTHER HAND (374 pages) - It is extremely funny, but the African

beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn't. And it's what happens

afterward that is most important.

# Stephanie BISHOP, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD (352 pages) - Cambridge

1963. Charlotte struggles to reconnect with the woman she was before children, and to find the

time and energy to paint. Her husband, Henry, cannot face the thought of another English winter. A

brochure slipped through the letterbox gives him the answer: 'Australia brings out the best in you'.

# Per PETTERSEN, OUT STEALING HORSES (258 pages) - After a meeting with his only

neighbor, sixty-seven-year-old Trond is forced to reflect upon a long-ago incident that marks the

beginning of a series of losses for Trond and his childhood friend, Jon.

W. Somerset MAUGHAM, THE PAINTED VEIL (213 pages) - Set in England and Hong

Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When

her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a

cholera epidemic. Stripped of the status she fought so hard to attain in Hong Kong, she reassesses

her life and ability to love.

Paula McLAIN, THE PARIS WIFE (385 pages) - No twentieth-century American writer has

captured the popular imagination as much as Ernest Hemingway. This novel tells his story from a

unique point of view — that of his first wife, Hadley.

Leif ENGER, PEACE LIKE A RIVER (365 pages) - The quiet 1960s Midwestern life of the

Land family--father Jeremiah, and children, Reuben, Davy and Swede--is upended when Davy

kills two teenage boys who have come to harm the family. On the morning of his sentencing, Davy

escapes from his cell and the Lands set out in search of him. Their search is at once a heroic

quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the

everyday world.

Geraldine BROOKS, PEOPLE OF THE BOOK (390 pages) - This is an extraordinary

history of a Jewish prayer book. Hannah Heath is an archivist is repairing the book, she finds

unexpected things in the binding: a granule of salt, a wine stain, a fragment of a butterfly wing. As

she discovers these items, the reader sees the story of their introduction into the book.

Patrick SUSKIND, PERFUME (296 pages) - Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a

terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his

sense of smell—leads to murder.

Jane AUSTEN, PERSUASION (192 pages) - How far should one yield to persuasion from

older, wiser, loving people? When is advice interference? In Jane Austen’s last completed work her

characteristic incisiveness gains an autumnal tone.

Joan Weigall LINDSAY, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (192 pages) - It was a cloudless

summer day in the year nineteen hundred. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies

agreed it was just right of a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three of the girls

climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of

Hanging Rock. Further, higher, till at last they disappeared. They never returned.

Oscar WILDE, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (213 pages) - Oscar Wilde's story of

a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular

works.

Barbara KINGSOLVER, POISONWOOD BIBLE (576 pages) – The story is told by the wife

and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission

to the Belgian Congo in 1959. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing

and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

# Jean-Paul DIDIERLAURENT, THE READER ON THE 6:27 (256 pages) - Guylain

Vignolles lives on the edge of existence. Working at a book pulping factory in a job he hates, he

has but one pleasure in life . . . Sitting on the 6.27 train each day, Guylain recites aloud from pages

he has saved from the jaws of his monstrous pulping machine. And it's this release of words into

the world that starts our hero on a journey that will finally bring meaning into his life.

Anita DIAMANT, THE RED TENT (395 pages) - The Red Tent tells the story of Dinah from

the Bible, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph, a talented midwife and proto-feminist. The

book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law,

take refuge while menstruating or giving birth, and in which they find mutual support and

encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts.

Robert GOOLRICK, A RELIABLE WIFE (291 pages) - He placed a notice in a Chicago

paper, an advertisement for "a reliable wife." She responded, saying that she was "a simple,

honest woman." She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was

her single-minded determination to marry this man and then kill him, slowly and carefully, leaving

her a wealthy widow, able to take care of the one she truly loved.

Richard YATES, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (338 pages) – Frank and April Wheeler are a

bright young couple who are bored by the banalities of suburban life and long to be extraordinary.

Ben Aaronovitch, RIVERS OF LONDON (392 pages) - Probationary Constable Peter Grant

dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign

him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s

prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from

an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost.

Emma DONOGHUE, ROOM (401 pages) – Jack and Ma live in a locked room that measures

eleven foot by eleven. When he turns five, he starts to ask questions, and his mother reveals to

him that there is a world outside. Told entirely in Jack’s voice, Room is no horror story or tearjerker,

but a celebration of resilience and the love between parent and child.

# E. M. FORSTER, A ROOM WITH A VIEW (240 pages) - Lucy Honeychurch falls in love

while on a visit to Florence and must choose between fulfilling her social role or following her heart.

Graeme SIMSION, THE ROSIE PROJECT (329 pages) – Don Tillman designed the Wife

Project, using a questionnaire to help him find the perfect partner. She will most definitely not be a

barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver. Rosie Jarman is all these things,and on a quest of

her own to find her biological father—a search that Don, a professor of genetics, might just be able

to help her with.

Augusten BURROUGHS, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS (304 pages) - The true story of a

boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her

psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa, and a lunatic in the bargain.

Susan DUNCAN, SALVATION CREEK (386 pages) - Heartbreaking, funny, and honest, this

is the story of a woman who found the courage not only to walk away from a successful career and

begin again, but to beat the odds in her own battle for survival and find a new life—and love—in a

tiny waterside idyll cut off from the outside world.

Tatiana de ROSNAY, SARAH’S KEY (294 pages) - On the sixtieth anniversary of the 1942

roundup of Jews by the French police in the Vel d'Hiv section of Paris, American journalist Julia

Jarmond is asked to write an article on this dark episode during World War II and embarks on

investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah, a young girl

caught up in the raid.

Ian McEWAN, SATURDAY (279 pages) - Saturday is a novel set within a single day -- 15

February 2003. A successful, happily married neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne is drawn into a

confrontation with Baxter, a small-time thug, following a minor motor vehicle accident, an

encounter that has savage consequences.

Nancy PICKARD, THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTNING (319 pages) - The man

convicted of murdering Jody's father, Billy Crosby, is being released from prison and returning to

the small town of Rose, Kansas. Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the

efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father's

innocence. As Jody revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous

truth about her family's tragic past.

Erica BAUERMEISTER, THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS (261

pages) – Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian’s restaurant for a cooling

class. The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian’s soulful dishes, but it soon becomes

clear that each seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. And one by one they are

transformed by the aromas, flavours, and textures of what they create....

Donna TARTT, THE SECRET HISTORY (629 pages) - Under the influence of their

charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college

discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their

contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are

changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it

is to kill.

Sue Monk KIDD, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES (336 pages) - The Secret Life of Bees is

the story of Lily, a fourteen-year-old girl who runs away from her unloving father to search for the

secrets of her dead mother's past.

Barbara TRAPIDO, SEX AND STRAVINSKY (303 pages) - The time is 1995, but

everybody is linked by their past. Brilliant Australian Caroline can command everyone except her

own ghoulish mother, which means that things aren't easy for Josh and Zoe, her husband and

twelve-year-old daughter. Josh has bizarre origins in a South African mining town, but now teaches

mime in Bristol.

Carlos Ruis ZAFON, THE SHADOW OF THE WIND (487 pages) - It is 1945 and

Barcelona is enduring the long aftermath of civil war when Daniel Sempere’s bookseller father

decides he is old enough to visit the fabulous secret library, the ‘Cemetery of Forgotten Books’.

There, Daniel must ‘adopt’ a single book, promising to care for it and keep it alive always.

Robert DREWE, THE SHARK NET (358 pages) - Aged six, Robert Drewe moved with his

family from Melbourne to Perth, the world's most isolated city - and proud of it. This sun-baked

coast was innocently proud, too, of its tranquility and friendliness. Then a man he knew murdered

a boy he also knew…

Michel DIGNAND, SHE KNOWS HOW TO LOOK AFTER HERSELF (165 pages) –

Seventeen widely different scenarios, seventeen widely different outcomes in this collection of

stories from local author Michel Dignand.

Annie PROULX, THE SHIPPING NEWS (352 pages) - When Quoyle's two-timing wife

meets her just desserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly

beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a

part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life.

Marina LEWYCKA, A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRAINIAN (324

pages) - In this comedic debut novel, two feuding sisters team to save their father, an elderly

Ukrainian widower (and author of a book on tractors) living just outside of London, from the very

young, voluptuous Valentina, who is attempting to seduce him (and his money).

# Mary S. LOVELL, THE SISTERS (640 pages) - A portrait of the Mitford sisters follows

Jessica, a communist; Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy, a best-selling novelist; Diana,

who was the most hated woman in England; and Unity, who was obsessed with Adolf Hitler.

Tanya BRYON, THE SKELETON CUPBOARD (301 pages) - Tanya Byron's account of

her years of training as a clinical psychologist, when trainees find themselves in the toughest

placements of their careers. Through the eyes of her naive and inexperienced younger self, Tanya

shares remarkable stories inspired by the people she had the privilege to treat.

Christos TSIOLKAS, THE SLAP (496 pages) - At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child

who is not his own. This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends,

who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event. (Language Warning)

David GUTERSON, SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS (404 pages) - San Piedro Island,

north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make

enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American

named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder.

Lisa SEE, SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN (288 pages) - A language kept a

secret for a thousand years forms the backdrop for an unforgettable novel of two Chinese women

whose friendship and love sustains them through their lives.

Lionel SHRIVER, SO MUCH FOR THAT (531 pages) - After his wife is diagnosed with

cancer, Shep Knacker sees his dream of retiring to a developing country slip away, along with all

the money in his once-plentiful bank account, as he tries to navigate America's labyrinthine health-

care system.

James BUTTON, SPEECHLESS : A YEAR IN MY FATHER’S BUSINESS (246

pages) - James Button grew up immersed in the Australian Labor Party as the son of the street-

fighting Senator John Button, an environment that encouraged him to become a political journalist

and then a speechwriter for former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Mark DAPIN, SPIRIT HOUSE (356 pages) - a story of the fall of Singapore and life as a POW,

of the bonds of life-long friendship and the bonds of grief, and of a young boy making sense of his

future while old men try to live with their past.

# Emily St John MANDEL, STATION ELEVEN (336 pages) - An audacious, darkly glittering

novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a

Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts

of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Lisa GENOVA, STILL ALICE (292 pages) Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so

hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-

renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she

becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life--and her

relationship with her family and the world--forever.

At once beautiful and terrifying, Still Alice is a moving and vivid depiction of life with early-onset

Alzheimer’s disease.

# John WILLIAMS, STONER (278 pages) - William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth

century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he

instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the

hardscrabble existence he has known.

# Irene NEMIROVSKY, SUITE FRANCAISE (431 pages) - A story of life in France under the

Nazi occupation includes two parts--"Storm in June," set amid the chaotic 1940 exodus from Paris,

and "Dolce," set in a German-occupied village rife with resentment, resistance, and collaboration.

Rosalie HAM, SUMMER AT MOUNT HOPE (296 pages) - Summer At Mount Hope is the

story of a young woman growing up in rural Victoria, Australia in a time of drought and depression.

It is the story of her quest to retain freedom despite the strictures and expectations of family and

society.

Siri HUSTVEDT, THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN (182 pages) - After Mia Fredricksen's

husband of thirty years asks for a pause - so he can indulge his infatuation with a young French

colleague - she cracks up (briefly), rages (deeply), then decamps to her prairie childhood home.

Alexander McCALL SMITH, SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB (297 pages) - The charm of

Edinburgh features in the bestselling Isabel Dalhousie series of novels featuring the insatiably

curious philosopher and woman detective. The editor of "The Review of Applied Ethics" and a

curious lover of puzzles, Isabel Dalhousie decides to investigate when she witnesses the fatal fall

of a young man and discovers that he had been probing misdeeds at his brokerage firm.

Steven Levitt & Stephen DUBNER, SUPERFREAKONOMICS (288 pages) – Four years

in the making, Super Freakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones:

What’s more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so

often if it’s so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary? By examining how people

respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is.

Tara June WINCH, SWALLOW THE AIR (198 pages) - When May's mother dies suddenly,

she and her brother Billy are taken in by an aunt. However their loss leaves them both searching

for their place in a world that doesn't want them. May sets off to find her father and her Aboriginal

identity.

Alan BRADLEY, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE (363 pages) -

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is propelled into a

mystery when a man is found murdered on the grounds of her family's decaying English mansion

and Flavia's father becomes the main suspect.

Carol Rifka BRUNT, TELL THE WOLVES I’M HOME (368 pages) – In this striking

literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely

people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost

someone until you’ve found them.

Peter CAREY, THEFT (269 pages) - Michael "Butcher" Boone is an ex-“really famous" painter,

now reduced to living in a remote country house and acting as caretaker for his younger brother,

Hugh. Alone together they've forged a delicate equilibrium, a balance instantly destroyed when a

mysterious young woman named Marlene walks out of a rainstorm and into their lives.

Tim O’BRIEN, THE THINGS THEY CARRIED (236 pages) - They carried malaria tablets,

love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. And, if they made it

home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to

absorb.

Diane SETTERFIELD, THE THIRTEENTH TALE (456 pages) - When her health begins

failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth

about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish

tales.

# Patricia HIGHSMITH, THIS SWEET SICKNESS (288 pages) - Obsessed with his love for

Annabelle Delaney, David Kelsey tries to break up her marriage and succeeds in accidentally

killing her husband.

Victoria HISLOP, THE THREAD (390 pages) - The troubled history of the city of Thessaloniki

in a story that spans almost a century, beginning with the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 which

almost destroyed the city, burning for almost two days and razing 9,500 houses. The city that rose

from the ashes would be very different...

# Jamie MASON, THREE GRAVES FULL (306 pages) - More than a year ago, mild-

mannered Jason Getty killed a man he wished he’d never met. Then he planted the problem a little

too close to home. But just as he’s learning to live with the undeniable reality of what he’s done,

police unearth two bodies on his property—neither of which is the one Jason buried.

Nick HARKAWAY, TIGERMAN (372 pages) - Assigned to a ceremonial post in Mancreu,

British consul and Afghanistan war veteran Lester Ferris is compelled to disregard widespread

underworld activities while bonding with a comic-addicted youth who during a violent uprising

desperately relies on him for help

Liza KLAUSSMANN, TIGERS IN RED WEATHER (388 pages) - Old secrets are revealed

and lives become unravelled when the children of a well-heeled New England family discover the

body of a murder victim near Tiger House, their vacation home.

Harper LEE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (309 pages) - To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's

first novel. The book is set in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and a

father, defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a poor white girl, Mayella

Ewell

Nigel SLATER, TOAST (256 pages) - Toast is Nigel Slater’s truly extraordinary story of a

childhood remembered through food. In each chapter, as he takes readers on a tour of the

contents of his family’s pantry—rice pudding, tinned ham, cream soda, mince pies, lemon drops,

bourbon biscuits—we are transported....

Bryce CORBETT, A TOWN LIKE PARIS (304 pages) - Australian journalist Corbett offers a

humorous and vivid account of his love affair with Paris.

Betty SMITH, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (496 pages) - The story of young,

sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of

Williamsburg

Belinda NIALL, TRUE NORTH : THE STORY OF MARY AND ELISABETH

DURACK (248 pages) - Brenda Niall was given unprecedented access to private family letters,

unpublished memoirs, diaries and family papers to write True North – a biography of the two

sisters and a uniquely Australian story.

Mitch ALBOM, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE (197 pages) - Mitch Albom rediscovers the

friendship he had with his college professor, Morrie Schwartz in the last months of the older man's

life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Morrie visited Mitch in his study

every Tuesday. This is a chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's

lasting gift with the world.

Alan BENNETT, THE UNCOMMON READER (120 pages) - By turns cheeky and

charming, the novella features the Queen herself as its protagonist. When her yapping corgis lead

her to a mobile library, Her Majesty develops a new obsession with reading.

Richard FLANAGAN, THE UNKNOWN TERRORIST (320 pages) - The Unknown

Terrorist makes use of the post-911 worldwide fear of terror attacks as the driving force behind this

savagely relevant novel. We are taken on a nightmare ride through a city that has been whipped

up into an "alarmed, not alert" frenzy.

Rachel JOYCE, THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY (357 pages) –

When Harold Fry leaves home one morning to post a letter, with his wife hoovering upstairs, he

has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other.

# A. J. MACKINNON, THE UNLIKELY VOYAGE OF JACK de CROW (356 pages) -

Equipped with his cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, A.J. Mackinnon takes the reader with him

from the borders of North Wales to the Black Sea - 4900 kilometres over salt and fresh water,

under sail, at the oars or at the end of a tow rope - through 12 countries, 282 locks and numerous

trials.

Alice PUNG, UNPOLISHED GEM (282 pages) – In this lyrical, bittersweet memoir, Alice

grows up straddling two worlds, East and West, her insular family and the Australia outside. With

wisdom beyond her years and a keen eye for comedy in everyday life, she writes of the trials of

assimilation and cultural misunderstanding, and of the tender but fraught relationships between

three generations of women trying to live the Australian dream without losing themselves

Maggie O’FARRELL, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX (245 pages) – A

tale of two sisters in colonial India and Edinburg bound together by loneliness and driven apart by

rivalries that lead to a cruel betrayal; it is also the gripping story of how 60 years later, their

shocking secret comes to life.

Anthony CAPELLA, THE VARIOUS FLAVOURS OF COFFEE (560 pages) – A

passionate adventure set against the backdrop of the coffee trade. Stretching from London to

Africa at the turn of the last century, The Various Flavours of Coffee is a sweeping saga of

forbidden love, trade secrets, and the playfully delicious story of a young man’s coming-of-age.

Arnold ZABLE, VIOLIN LESSONS (194 pages) – From the cabarets of 1940s Baghdad to

the streets of war-torn Saigon and the canals and alleyways of present-day Venice, music weaves

through each of these spellbinding true stories.

Jennifer EGAN, A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD (340 pages) - Working side-by-

side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit

secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people

from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future.

Bill BRYSON, A WALK IN THE WOODS (397 pages) - Returning to the U.S. after 20

years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the

length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping section of his local

sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently

comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance.

Sara GRUEN, WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (388 pages) - Though he may not speak of

them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind, memories

of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini

Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

Karen Joy FOWLER, WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES (308

pages) - Meet the Cooke family. Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped

talking; as a young woman, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting,

of protective cover. Something happened, something so awful she has buried it in the recesses of

her mind.

Marina LEWYCKA, WE ARE ALL MADE OF GLUE (419 pages) - Georgie Sinclair's life

is coming unstuck. Her husband's left her. Her son's obsessed with the End of the World. And now

her elderly neighbour Mrs Shapiro has decided they are related.

Lionel SHRIVER, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (432 pages) - Kevin

Katchadourian killed seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher,

shortly before his sixteenth birthday. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a

series of letters to her estranged husband Franklin, the story of Kevin’s upbringing.

Liane MORIARTY, WHAT ALICE FORGOT (416 pages) - Suffering an accident that

causes her to forget the last ten years of her life, Alice is astonished to discover that she is thirty-

nine years old, a mother of three children, and in the midst of an acrimonious divorce from a man

she dearly loves.

David SEDARIS, WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES (336 pages) - A

collection of humorous essays that explores such topics as an effort to make coffee while the water

is shut off, an annoying fellow passenger on a plane journey, and a smoking-cessation trip to

Tokyo.

# K. T. MEDINA, WHITE CROCODILE (384 pages) - After her estranged husband goes

missing while clearing minefields, Tess Hardy travels to Cambodia to search for him and uncover

the truth, amidst tales of a mythical White Crocodile that kills everyone it meets.

Roffey MONIQUE, THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE (448 pages) -

When George and Sabine Harwood arrive in Trinidad from England. George instantly takes to their

new life, but Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill at ease with the racial segregation and the

imminent dawning of a new era.

Cheryl STRAYED, WILD: A JOURNEY FROM LOST TO FOUND (315 pages) - A

powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a

young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.

Alice STEINBACH, WITHOUT RESERVATIONS : THE TRAVELS OF AN

INDEPENDENT WOMAN (278 pages) - The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer explores the

nature of independence, chronicling her own adventures as a woman in search of freedom from

the things that define her as she journeys to Paris, Oxford, Milan, and beyond.

Cate KENNEDY, THE WORLD BENEATH (342 pages) – Once, Rich and Sandy were

environmental activists, part of a world-famous blockade in Tasmania to save the wilderness.

Now, twenty-five years later, about the only thing they have in common is their fifteen-year-old

daughter, Sophie. When the perennially restless Rich decides to take Sophie, whom he hardly

knows, on a trek into the Tasmanian wilderness, a chain of events is set off that no-one could have

predicted.

# Joan DIDION, THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING (227 pages) - An

autobiographical portrait of marriage and motherhood by the acclaimed author details her struggle

to come to terms with life and death, illness, sanity, personal upheaval, and grief.

Geraldine BROOKS, YEAR OF WONDERS (308 p.) - When an infected bolt of cloth carries

plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely

heroine and healer.

Dave EGGARS, ZEITOUN (335 pages) - The true story of one family, caught between

America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Told with eloquence and compassion, Zeitoun is a riveting account of unthinkable struggle with

forces beyond wind and water

Diane ACKERMAN, THE ZOO KEEPER’S WIFE (349 pages) - Documents the true story

of Warsaw Zoo keepers and resistance activists Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who in the aftermath

of Germany's invasion of Poland saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish citizens by smuggling them

into empty cages and their home villa.

Your Wish List

To help us with your Book Club selections, consult with club members to select your

choices, and then fill in the following form and return it to your branch library.

We will always try to send books from your Wish List, but, if your choices are not available

we will send you a random choice along with a note explaining this. Remember, part of the

beauty of Book Club is reading books that you may not have chosen yourself.

If there are any titles you do not wish to read please add them to the No Thanks list.

(Please Note: This is not a list of books that you have already read, we have a record of

your past loans with the RRL Book Club)

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