What we've been reading
A group of people are gathered at a suburban Barbecue. During the afternoon an incident between one of the guests and a four year old result in consequences that directly, or indirectly, affect all who are present.
Told as a collec...
Told as a collec...
Freedom
By Jonathan Franzen
Just like Corrections, Franzen's love of prattle at times tests my patience. The characters are however interesting (in a train wreck, disfunctional kind of a way). Franzen's quality is his ability to tell it straight. And I guess that's wh...
The Given Day
by Dennis Lehane
The Given Day is in that class of books my husband affectionately refers to as ‘widow makers’. Once I started reading this book, I was quickly immersed in the story and the rest of the world simply dissolved. The Given Day documents a time ...
Towelhead
by Alicia Erian
Jasira, a 13 year old Arab-American girl has been sent by her mother to live with the Lebanese father she barely knows. Jasira is not happy living with her father; he alienates her with his strict rules, harsh punishments and lack of affect...
If dogs could talk, how would they tell their stories?
Stein takes a fresh approach to the popular genre of dogs and their owners. Instead of yet another story of an owner droning over how their dog changed their life, we are tol...
Stein takes a fresh approach to the popular genre of dogs and their owners. Instead of yet another story of an owner droning over how their dog changed their life, we are tol...
The Good Thief
by Hannah Tinti
Set in New England in the 19th century, ‘The Good Thief’ is the story of a twelve year old, one-handed orphan, Ren.
Ren has been an orphan at the Saint Anthony’s Monastery as long as he remembers. His parentage and his missing hand had...
Broken
by Daniel Clay
Skunk is 11 and in a coma. From her hospital bed she guides the reader through the events in her neighbourhood.
Across the street to Skunk, live the Buckleys, a mild mannered couple with their awkward son Rick. In the same square...
Once in a while a book comes along and digs its claws into you. Child 44 is such a book. A surprise pick for the Man Booker long list, Child 44 is the type of gripping tale that keeps the reader glued to its pages.
The story is ...
The story is ...
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama
Barack Obama’s lyrical memoir was written in 1991 after he had become the first African-American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. The election attracted some media attention and an invitation by a New York publisher to publi...
Juliet Ashton, a successful columnist in London during WWII is stuck with what to follow her witty wartime columns with. By chance she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey who wrote to her when – by pure chance – he had acquired ...
The Memory Room
by Christopher J. Koch
Vincent Austin believes some spies are made, but his kind - those devoted to secrecy for their own sake, are born. Orphaned at a young age, Vincent lives with his Aunt in Tasmania. He soon befriends Erika Lange, who has also lost her mother...
Tom Brennan and his family are forced to leave their home in the small town of Mumbilli, and move in with their grandmother in the nearby town of Coghill. Their move follows a tragedy involving Tom’s brother Daniel after a night of celebrat...
Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse 5 tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a 44 year old optometrist time traveler. On the night his daughter marries Billy abducted by aliens from Tralfamadore, is put on display in their zoo, where he is a great attraction for t...
Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert
I did not choose this book voluntarily, it was forced upon me by my bookclub. The girl who recommended it did so knowing I’d object to it.
A messy divorce followed immediately by a breakd...
The moment I love best about any book, is the moment I start the first sentence. That sense of anticipation when starting something new. It's the moment when I open myself to a whole new discovery of characters, plot and settings. It's also...
The Boat
by Nam Le
Nam Le's book of short stories, hit our stores under a great umbrella of praise from the literary society. It was picked by the SBS 'The First Tuesday and 702 ABC Radio bookclubs.
Bronte's Story
by Bronte Cullis
Bronte's Story
by Bronte Cullis
Bronte Cullis is a neurotic teenager. Despite coming from a loving, supportive family, she is anxious and obsessive. Her life is ruled by phobias and fears over protecting her family. Fragile and brittle, she's an easy target for bullies at...
Lovesong
by Alex Miller
Sabiha and John's love affair begins unexpectedly when John, seeking shelter from heavy rain takes refuge in Chez Dom, a small Tunisian cafe Sabiha runs with her aunt in Paris. Despite their deep love and affection towards one another, over...
Wonders of a Godless World
by Andrew McGahan
As a writer still finding my voice, Andrew McGahan provides me with the inspiration to stick to an art that gives me as much heartache as pleasure. Original, eclectic and talented, McGahan deserves far more attention, adoration and awards a...
This is the diary of a journalist who for six weeks lived as a black man in New Orleans and Mississippi during the early 1960’s. As part of his experiment Griffin visited various establishments: chemists, cafes, retail outfits first as a wh...
Then
by Morris Gleitzman
Once and its sequel, Then are harrowing and beautifully told stories of ten year old Felix; a Jewish boy caught in the midst of the Holocaust. Similar to The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas and equally as good, Once and Then are told through th...
I first saw this book on the new release shelves and later found it on the Independent booksellers’ bestsellers list. When a member of our bookgroup whose turn was to choose did not show, I made a split decision and picked Inheritance.
...
Under This Unbroken Sky
by Shandi Mitchell
...
Under This Unbroken Sky
by Shandi Mitchell
In the spring of 1938, Theo Mykolayenko returns home after a year in prison for the crime of stealing grain to feed his family. Having escaped Stalin's Ukraine, Theo refuses to be beaten. Unable to purchase land under his own name, he comes...
Otto and Anna Quangle, law abiding, simple working class couple living in a Berlin, have always done their very best to stay out of trouble. When they receive a letter informing them that their only son is killed in the war, something brea...
Butterfly
by Sonya Hartnett
I have always enjoyed coming of age stories; there is a purity of truth about them that I really find appealing. They conjure up old memories and forgotten insecurities that at the time I had felt were uniquely my own. Set in an Australian ...
How would you feel showing up to where you thought your daughter had been working all summer only to be told she never worked there. Worst still how would you feel if your daughter was now missing? This is the nightmare Tim Blake, a Toyota...
Came Back to Show You I Could Fly
by Robin Klein
I first read this book as a teenager. It was the summer holidays and feeling bored and hot I picked this book up for lack of something better to do. Fifteen years later when it was chosen for our bookclub, I had only a vague memory of the p...
Truth be told, I am a sucker for studies on social behaviours. Complex and insecure, we have a tendency to think of ourselves as the most important person in the world, with problems and desires that are uniquely our own. In What Makes Us T...
The Ghost at the Wedding
by Shirley Walker
A lyrical memoir written with great tenderness, The Ghost at the Wedding is an imaginative retelling of Jessie Walker’s family truth. In parts where facts fall short or time has eroded, Walker’s imagination has stepped in to fill in the gap...
What Is America?: A Short History of the New World Order
by Ronald Wright
How did America, transform from a frontier country to the lone super power in just over two centuries? How do America’s claims to be the most modern and democratic country in the world, stand up to scrutiny whilst Middle America – The Backw...
The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink
The Reader is the story of 15-year old Michael Berg and his relationship with the much older Hanna Schmitz. Intense and short-lived, the relationship has a profound effect on Michael. By chance Michael meets Hanna again whilst studying Law ...
Welcome to Café Scheherazade where our narrator, Martin sits in the backroom and listens to the proprietors Avram and Masha, and their regular clientele relive the Jewish Holocaust through their personal stories.
Avram, stooped o...
Marcelo In The Real World
by Francisco X. Stork
Marcelo Sandoval is different from other seventeen year old boys- he hears music in his head, has a perverse interest in religion, owns 100's of classical music CDs and sleeps in a tree house at his family home. When spoken to, Marcelo take...
Following a family tragedy Katherine Patterson moves to Sydney to make a fresh start in a city where no one knows her. At school she's befriended by Alice.
Stunning, charasmatic and fun, Alice's personality is infectious and Kat...
