Showing posts with label Book Review - Adult Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review - Adult Fiction. Show all posts

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Wonderful winter reads

The colder weather has finally arrived and our libraries have some brilliant reads to curl up with this winter. You can reserve items on our online catalogue, or call in to a branch for a browse. New titles are arriving all the time, making for a wonderful winter of reading!



The Addisons - Julia and Tonio, ten-year-old Dewey, and Uncle Robbie - are driving home after collecting Robbie from yet another trip to rehab. When a terrifying blizzard strikes outside the town of Good Night, Idaho, they seek refuge at the Travelers Rest, a formerly opulent but now crumbling hotel.
With nowhere else to go, they decide to stay the night. But once inside, the family becomes separated and the hotel begins to work its eerie magic. As Julia and Tonio drift through the maze of the hotel's spectral interiors, Dewey ventures outside. Meanwhile, a desperate Robbie quickly succumbs to his old vices. As they desperately try to reach each other, they relive the same day over and over again. The mother, Julia, holds the key to their release - but can she save her family from the fate of becoming Souvenirs - those citizens trapped forever in Good Night - or, worse, from disappearing entirely?



Aisling, a goddess in human form, was born to rule both domains and--with her twin, Anya--unite the Celts with the powerful faeries of the Middle Kingdom. But within medieval Ireland interests are divided, and far from its shores greater forces are mustering. Both England and Rome have a stake in driving magic from the Emerald Isle. Jordan, the Vatican commander tasked with vanquishing the remnants of otherworldly creatures from a disenchanted Europe, has built a career on such plots. But increasingly he finds himself torn between duty and his desire to understand the magic that has been forbidden.
As kings prepare, exorcists gather, and divisions widen between the warring clans of Ireland, Aisling and Jordan must come to terms with powers given and withheld, while a world that can still foster magic hangs in the balance. Loyalties are tested, betrayals sown, and the coming war will have repercussions that ripple centuries later, in today's world--and in particular for a young graduate student named Sara Hill.
The Last Days of Magic introduces us to unforgettable characters who grapple with quests for power, human frailty, and the longing for knowledge that has been made taboo. Mark Tompkins has crafted a remarkable tale--a feat of world-building that poses astonishing and resonant answers to epic questions.



What would you do if your ex-con father suddenly came to visit...indefinitely? Family drama ensues when Nicki's dad unexpectedly wants to move in with her, her son, and her boyfriend in this comedic novel from successful TV writer Tracy McMillan.
Nicki Daniels owns a home appraisal business, but real estate is her true passion: she lives for open houses and really knows her way around a floor plan. And especially at this juncture of her life, real estate has come to signify the stability she is trying to build with her teenage son, Cody, and her much younger boyfriend, Jake. She's finally ready to find the perfect house for the three of them and work on a new business venture with Jake that she thinks will jump-start their lives together.
Meanwhile, Ronnie, a longtime inmate at a nearby correctional facility, is getting some good news for once--there was a mistake in his sentencing, and he's eligible to get out of prison. Ronnie decides his best option to avoid homelessness is to move in with his estranged daughter: Nicki. Even though they haven't spoken in years, her door is always open to him, right?
Imbued with wit and profound insight into relationships, Multiple Listings speaks poignantly--and often hilariously--about the ties that bind families of all types together



Back to Moscow is a dazzlingly original, witty and ultimately haunting debut. Months after his arrival in Moscow, doctoral student Martin hasn't written a word of his thesis on the heroines of the Russian classics because, for him and his expat friends, the cheap, bright lure of nightclubs, vodka and real women is predictably hard to resist. It's the early 2000s and the city is storming into the twenty-first century - the grim old soviet certainties are fading as money and an assertive political elite rise to power. Martin finds himself torn between opposing sensibilities: on the one hand, the limpid appeal of Lena, and her insistence on the Mysterious Russian Soul; on the other, that of his research supervisor Lyudmila Aleksandrovna, diligent, serious, caught in the shadow of a soviet past. Can the fates of Anna Karenina, Pushkin's Tatyana or Chekhov's three sisters help him understand the women in his life? Martin's restless explorations turn into a half-grasped search for meaning as Moscow leads him to dark and unexpected places tinged by Russia's ever-present sense of impending tragedy.




Thursday, April 21, 2016

The Janeites by Nicolas Freeling


"Believe me. There's no-one like Jane in a tight place." Nicholas Freeling, The Janeites, page 43

Where has Nicolas Freeling been all of my life? I recently finished The Janeites, the last book he wrote before he died in 2003. Oh woe. Now I need to track down the rest of his books, starting with Love in Amsterdam starring Inspector Van Der Valk.

When I started The Janeites I thought I'd stumbled upon a weird or badly edited novel. So I slept on it and started again the next day. Within two chapters I never wanted to the leave the world of Dr Ray Valdez and William and Josephine Barton - Janeites all three. Ray is "no Superman ... but has a talent for winning. In the research world, where they seek to grip on the crab he is not thought of as an unusual technician. The Oncology people hold him in respect because he has a talent betimes thought uncanny: he can often outguess them when the crab - a champion at this game - looks to be winning.".
 This comic novel touches on the political worlds of Paris and Strasbourg, with a dash of romance and intrigue. Josephine has left William because he is "too good", but later she finds out he has "the crab" (cancer).  "Crab" genius Dr Ray Valdez prescribes green tea and readings from Jane Austen. The crab recedes. Many adventures for the three are entwined in this story. Affairs of the heart, a dangerous descent, jealousy, a bashing, retribution and naïve misplaced revenge. It doesn't end well for everyone...

Library members can borrow The Janeites as an eBook. For assistance call any of our branches.

Publisher: Arcadia Books Limited, 2002

 

Friday, December 04, 2015

THE BOOK CLUB - Voted five of the best for 2015 - with Jennifer Byrne

VOTES are in for the TOP 5 books that were relished by You - the reader, in 2015:

1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
3. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
4. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
5. Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover


The Girl on the Train  A Little Life A God in Ruins The Natural Way of Things Flesh Wounds

Five more books recommended by The First Tuesday Book Club

6. When There’s Nowhere Else to Run by Murray Middleton
7. These Things Happen by Greg Fleet
8. Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
9. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
10. Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

When There's Nowhere Else to Run These Things Happen Salt Creek A Spool of Blue Thread Go Set a Watchman


 

Friday, November 27, 2015

Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine

Brilliantly written, this "novel of Romeo and Juliet" is the story of Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, during the famous Romeo and Juliet tragedy. It starts with a thief in the night, and a chance meeting with the beautiful Rosaline, Romeo's original love. It darkens with the acknowledgement of Mercutio's forbidden love - a hangable offence to be gay in fair Verona. A witch, a curse, lots of blood is shed...


Beautifully written, a compelling read, and a different take on the traditional story.

Websites to look at:
Rachel Caine
Prince of Shadows
Book trailer

Category: Fiction, author intended it as Young Adult Fiction

Publisher: Allison & Busby

Monday, November 23, 2015

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga



"The Rooster Coop - where hundreds of coloured hens and roosters are stuffed tightly into wire mesh cages, packed as tightly as worms in a belly, pecking each other and shitting on each other, jostling just for breathing space; the whole cage giving off a horrible stench - the stench of terrified, feathered flesh. On the wooden desk above this coop sits a grinning young butcher, showing off the flesh and the organs of a recently chopped-up chicken, still oleaginous with a coating of dark blood. The roosters in the coop smell the blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they're next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop."
Meet Balram Halwai from India, representative of India's poor. His narrative of this brutal and sarcastically witty novel, draws you in, right to the very end...



Also available in Large Print, Sound Recording and e-Book
Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2008
Donna  Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham

A darkly satirical novel of love, revenge, and 1950s haute couture—now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth

After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage is compelled to return to her wretched outback dusty town she was exiled from as a child. She plans only to check on her ailing mother and leave. Tilly, a gutsy woman, decides to stay, and though she is still an outcast, her lush, exquisite dresses cannot be resisted by the women of Dungatar. Through her fashion business, her friendship with Sergeant Farrat—the town’s policeman, who has an unusual passion for fabrics—and a growing romance with Teddy, the local football star whose family is almost as despised as hers, she finds a measure of grudging acceptance. At the heart of this read, is the mother daughter relationship - reconciliation, forgiveness and love. Everything seems to be going along fine when all of a sudden everything turns upside down. It becomes clear that Tilly’s mind is secretly motivated: causing revenge on those who wronged her, in the most spectacular fashion.



"Mad Molly", Tilly's mum, had me laughing out loud with her honest, biting humour.
 Oh the dresses... they're so beautiful....

Available from Newcastle libraries and also available in Bolinda e-Audiobook format.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

eBooks are for Everyone!

eBooks are awesome, and they return themselves! If you are just beginning your e-book journey, check out our e-book help  for assistance in getting started or drop in to your local branch. Select, read online or download titles from our ever-growing collection of e-books including fiction and non-fiction, as well as resources for students and kids. Some titles available for loan now include:

Adult non-fiction - Classic Motorcycle Restoration and Maintenance

A complete workshop guide to restoring and maintaining your classic British motorcycle. Covering the principles of restoration and maintenance, and therefore applicable across all post-war classic British marques such as BSA, Matchless, Triumph, Norton, AJS and Royal Enfield, Classic Motorcycle Restoration and Maintenance covers everything from general maintenance procedures to full engine strips and rebuilds. With step-by-step instructions and over 800 images, the book covers, amongst other things, buying guides, legislation, essential tools, workshop advice, safety, stripping and rebuilding the key components for both singles and twins. With general maintenance, advice, recommended sources and additions included, this new book is an essential resource for the classic motorcycle restorer. Superbly illustrated with 735 colour images and 80 CAD diagrams along with step-by-step instructions.

Young Adult fiction - Afterlight by Rebecca Lim


From the acclaimed author of the Mercy series and The Astrologer's Daughter . Since her parents died in a freak motorbike accident, Sophie Teague's life has fallen apart. But she's just enrolled at a new high school, hoping for a fresh start. That's until Eve, a beautiful ghost in black, starts making terrifying nightly appearances, wanting Sophie to be her hands, eyes and go-to girl. There are loose ends that Eve needs Sophie to tie up. But dealing with the dead might just involve the greatest sacrifice of all. Dark, thrilling and unrelentingly eerie, Afterlight will take you deep into the heart of a dangerous love story, revealing the otherworldly--and deadly--pull of past wrongs that only the living can put right.

Adult fiction - The Storm by Neil Broadfoot

After his editor is murdered in front of him, crime reporter Doug McGregor's world falls apart. As prime witness, he's not allowed to investigate the case, and he's left only with questions and a bloody memory seared in his mind. On top of that, Doug's 'friendship' with his police contact, DS Susie Drummond, is in a weird place right now. So he leaps at the chance to take some time out with an old friend on the Isle of Skye. But when another savage killing occurs, Doug realises that the murders may be linked, and that going to Skye was the best and worst move possible. He's in the eye of the Storm - and this one could engulf them all.


Junior fiction - Phreddie and the Purple Pyramid by Jackie French

Join Phredde, a fractious but fun-loving phaery, Bruce, a mosquito-eating frog, and Pru, an everyday-normal school girl (except that she lives in a fairy castle, keeps pet piranhas, has a werewolf for a brother and a vampire for a teacher!), for a spooky and spell-binding adventure.








Junior non-fiction - The Surfing Scientist: 40 Cool Science Tricks by Ruben Meerman

Want to learn how to stick a potato through a straw? How you can make ice stick to a piece of cotton thread? Stick two books together without glue? Pick up a jar of rice with a pencil? Impress your mates? Too easy - the Surfing Scientist can show you how! Using only household ingredients and with nothing tricky for kids to buy, this book is perfect for every budding scientist or surfer! And it′s packed with facts, knowledge and trivia that interests and fascinates kids, and with photographs of each experiment to make the whole process easy but most of all fun. Ages 7-12 years.




Friday, September 04, 2015

New Adult Fiction

We have new titles arriving all time, here's a sample. Follow the link to access the catalogue record, place a free hold or find out more...




Candlesight by Michael Liddy



To a quiet life has come something truly extraordinary. Jared's seen the Lights since he was a child. Every night for a few minutes at ten pm a strange beacon would shine high up in the darkened factory opposite his tiny house. He ventured there one fateful night, and there he found the spectral creatures. Since then they've taken him to fantastical places, far away from the grey monotony of his life and the darkness of his past. All he's ever cared about is keeping the secret intact and leading a quiet life of anonymity. But it's a lonely, introspective existence that's always eaten away at him.When change comes to the factory, he finally finds another that he comes to trust and then share his secrets. But in the shadow of Amelia's arrival is one that already knows everything, and has intentions that are both dark and vicious. An ancient ritual is then taken to another time.Candlesight is a new fiction work by the author of Within Fallen Light and Behind Two Voices; the first installment of a sprawling story, one where the boundary between life and death is blurred.






No Cure for Love by Peter Robinson




'You think you do not know who I am, but you do... ' At first, newly successful British TV star Sarah Broughton thinks the letters she has been receiving are from a typical fan. Someone harmless, though a little strange. But when her admirer starts threatening Sarah and her loved ones, she turns to detective Arvo Hughes of the LAPD Threat Management Unit - expert in pursing the most dangerous of stalkers. Pitted against a frighteningly twisted mind, the policeman tests his expertise and experience to the limit in the desperate race to save Sarah's life.









The Dust That Falls From Dreams by Louis de Bernieres

In the brief golden years of King Edward VII's reign, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Kent, with their neighbours the Pitt boys on one side and the Pendennis boys on the other. But their days of childhood adventure are shadowed by the approach of war that will engulf them on the cusp of adulthood. When the boys end up scattered along the Western Front, Rosie faces the challenges of life for those left behind. Confused by her love for two young men - one an infantry soldier and one a flying ace - she has to navigate her way through extraordinary times. Can she, and her sisters, build new lives out of the opportunities and devastations that follow the Great War? Louis de Bernières' magnificent and moving novel follows the lives of an unforgettable cast of characters as they strike out to seek what happiness can be built from the ruins of the old world.






The Way of Sorrows by Jon Steele



The highly anticipated final book in Jon Steele's thrilling cosmic Angelus trilogy, The Way of Sorrows counts down the dwindling hours between humanity and the apocalypse. Steele again sets the stage for an epic battle, played out in Alaska, Russia, Switzerland, and ultimately Jerusalem,pitting the protectors of paradise--the eternal angels--against the "goons" of timeless evil. As the forces engage, we find the former escort Katherine Taylor having somehow survived the hideous scorched-earth attack on her Pacific Northwest home, but with no other signs of life in sight. Katherine soon realizes that her memory has been wiped clean, with few clues whether her toddler, Max, the child of prophecy who will guide creation through the next stage of evolution, has been killed or captured. Meanwhile, Detective Jay Harper is once again at Lausanne Cathedral, where he is following a new directive from his immortal, heavenly central command: rescue both Katherine and Max before the goons eliminate all trace of goodness from the world at midnight. What unfolds is a thrill-packed, action-filled journey that spans the globe--and the heavens. Combining science, religion, and fantasy, The Way of Sorrows is a wildly imaginative, inventive, one-of-a-kind finale to Jon Steele's monumental trilogy.






The Hands by Stephen Orr



He didn't look like he could jump a bull, but she knew he could. It was all in the hands, he'd often explain. The will. The bloody mindedness. On a cattle station that stretches beyond the horizon, seven people are trapped by their history and the need to make a living. Trevor Wilkie, the good father, holds it all together, promising his sons a future he no longer believes in himself. The boys, free to roam the world's biggest backyard, have nowhere to go. Trevor's father, Murray, is the keeper of stories and the holder of the deed. Murray has no intention of giving up what his forefathers created. But the drought is winning. The cattle are ribs. The bills keep coming. And one day, on the way to town, an accident changes everything.







The Fall by R.J. Pineiro


In R. J. Pineiro's The Fall, a sci-fi thriller, a man jumps from the upper-most reaches of the atmosphere and vanishes, ending up on an alternate Earth where he died five years earlier. Jack Taylor has always been an adrenaline junkie. As a federal contractor, he does dangerous jobs for the government that fall out of the realm of the SEALS and the Marines. And this next job is right up his alley. Jack has been assigned to test an orbital jump and if it works, the United States government will have a new strategy against enemy countries. Despite Jack's soaring career, his personal life is in shambles. He and his wife Angela are both workaholics and are on the verge of getting a divorce. But the night before his jump, Jack and Angela begin to rekindle their romance and their relationship holds promise for repair. Then comes the day of Jack's big jump. He doesn't burn up like some predicted--instead, he hits the speed of sound and disappears. Jack wakes up in an alternate universe. One where he died during a mission five years earlier and where Angela is still madly in love with him. But in this world, his boss, Pete, has turned to the dark side, is working against him, and the government is now on his tail. Jack must return to his own world but the only way for him to do that is to perform another orbital jump. This time is more difficult though--no one wants to see him go. Jack's adrenaline is contagious-- The Fall will keep readers on the edges of their seats, waiting to find out what crazy stunt Jack will perform next and to learn the fate of this charming, daredevil hero.



Monday, August 10, 2015

2015 Man Booker Prize Longlist

Which of the Man Booker Prize 2015 longlist are you reading?

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced on 29 July 2015 and has been praised by many as a truly diverse and deserving Man Booker ‘Dozen’.
The long list features a international spectrum of the novels, with the long list featuring three British writers, five US writers and one apiece from the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, India, Nigeria and Jamaica. Marlon James, who currently lives in Minneapolis, is the first Jamaican-born author to be nominated for the prize. Laila Lalami, now based in Santa Monica but born in Rabat, is the first Moroccan-born.

The longlist is:




 



Chair of the 2015 judges, Michael Wood, comments: ‘We had a great time choosing this list. Discussions weren’t always peaceful, but they were always very friendly. We were lucky in our companions and the submissions were extraordinary. The long list could have been twice as long, but we’re more than happy with our final choice.’ Lorna Bradbury, the Telegraph's book reviews editor, remarks: ‘This is a strong list that celebrates innovative novels from established writers as well as introducing us to some new voices.’ Justine Jordan writes in The Guardian: ‘this year, the new internationalism has led to a list with admirable balance and wide imaginative reach.’

The shortlist of six books will be announced on Tuesday 15 September and the 2015 winner will be announced on Tuesday 13 October at London’s Guildhall, televised on the BBC.

Place a hold on all of these titles today via the library's catalogue!



Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Good Reading August issue

Two things are known for certain about Elena Ferrante. One; she was born in Naples, Italy. Two; she's one of the greatest contemporary fiction writers alive. Everything else - her age, gender, appearance, location, - is a mystery, and her identity is the subject of fierce and frustrated speculation in the literary world.

Did we catch your attention?

Goodreading has come down with a bad case of #ferrantefever this month, as the last installment of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, The Story of the Lost Child, is published. Select Good Reading in the e-Magazines resources page on the Library's website and it will take you straight to the entire issue for you to read on your computer or tablet. 

“I believe that books, once they are written, have no need of their authors. If they have something to say, they will sooner or later find readers; if not, they won’t.” - Ferrante in a letter to her editor. Read the cover story to find out more about the globally acclaimed author. 

Good Reading also check in with Philippa Gregory to find out which books inspire her brilliant historical novels. Then rev up your heart rate with our interview with ThrillerEdge, a fast-growing coterie of Australia's best action writers. Also find out the story behind Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk, and how you can age gracefully with Growing Old Without Feeling Older. You'll also find articles from Kate Forsyth and Alice Hoffman, and a huge Fathers' Day Gift Guide in time for Dad's special day coming up in a few weeks' time. 



Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

How to be both by Ali Smith

Difficult to put my finger on this one. How to Be Both by Ali Smith is a dual narrative; two tales of love and injustice intertwined. Half way through I discovered the publishers has printed two versions of the book, swapping each of the stories to the beginning. Depending which copy of the book you pick up you may be meeting Francescho in 15th-century Ferrara, northern Italy first or teenage girl George in present day Cambridge, England. The two parts of 'How to Be Both' have overlapping themes: the subversive power of art; what Martineau refers to as “sexual and gender ambiguities”; the hold of the dead on the living; and, of course, the figure of Francescho him/herself.
George has a boy's name but is a girl whose sexuality is only just being explored; Francesco is born a girl but binds her chest and lives as a man. When Francesco is taken to a brothel by a male friend, the artist declines to sleep with the prostitute but draws her instead. When, centuries later, George and her mother study del Cossa's frescoes they cannot tell who is male and who is female. In the end, they decide it doesn't matter. And when Francesco sees George for the first time, she assumes George is a boy, only to discover later that she had been mistaken. I read Georges story first, and loved it... although I do wonder what my perception of the book may have been if I started the other first. Great read for book clubs who love a debate!

Category: Adult Fiction


Classic line: 


“And which comes first? her unbearable mother is saying. What we see or how we see it?” 


“Girl : do you hear me?

cause although it seemed to be the end of the world to me -
it wasn't. There was a lot more world : cause roads that look set to take you in one direction will sometimes twist back on themselves without ever seeming anything other than straight, ... many things get forgiven in the course of a life : nothing is finished or unchangeable except death and even death will bend a little if what you tell of it is told right.” 


Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Friday, June 26, 2015

The Book of Madness and Cures / Regina O'Melveny

Gabriella Mondini lives in 16th Century Venice, a Dottoressa by trade, thanks to the support and tutelage of her father. Together they are writing The Book of Diseases, an encyclopaedia of all known diseases, cures, and uses for medicinals. Dr Mondini leaves Venice to research further diseases and cures, leaving only a trail of letters that become erratic, enigmatic, and troubling, before they dry up completely.

His letters lead Gabriella to suspect her father may suffer some illness, or some form of madness. She sets out to find him, against her mother's wishes, taking her old nursemaid Olmina, and Olmina's husband Lorenzo, as her companions.

It is an arduous journey, with prejudices against women, witches, and Catholics evident along the way. Gabriella has her hope, her stubborn determination, the good nature of Lorenzo, the unfailing support of Olmina (even if she does complain), and her continued work on The Book of Diseases to sustain her.

This book is Regina O'Melveny's first novel, beautiful and lyrical, as you would expect from an award winning poet. Please do go to her website and read her Author's Note, even if you don't read the book. It may convince you, where I fail.

Category: Fiction, Historical Fiction

Who'll want to read it? People who love travel, history, an interest in illnesses of the body and the mind.

Point of no return: page 5
I didn't know then that during those fugitive hours beneath the influence of the damp moon, I was already plotting my future in pursuit of the past. ... It was then I knew I must set my life in motion or I would disappear.

Classic entry:
Page 59
MELANCHOLIA:
When One Is Weighed by a Leaden Sadness
Melancholia seeps into one's life like the metallic sand of an hourglass. Despondency accrues. One suffers from inertia and wan complexion. My friend Messalina grew so disconsolate that no one could find a cure, not even my father. The use of plants with a moist nature, such as watercress, lovage, and water parsley, could not counter her dry, cold humor. It is said that the black bile of melancholia devours even stone with its terrible acid.

Publisher: John Murray

name, date Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Tree Palace by Craig Sherborne



Shane, Moira and Midge, along with young Zara and Rory, are ‘trants’—itinerants roaming the plains north-west of Melbourne in search of disused houses to sleep in, or to strip of heritage fittings when funds are low. When they find their Tree Palace outside Barleyville, things are looking up. At last, a place in which to settle down.

But Zara, fifteen, is pregnant and doesn’t want a child. She’d rather a normal life with town boys, not trant life with a baby. Moira decides to step in: she’ll look after her grandchild. Then Shane finds himself in trouble with the local cop. Warmly told and witty, Craig Sherborne’s second novel is a revelation—an affecting story of family and rural life. 

Category: Fiction

Praise: ‘[Tree Palace is] moving, terrifying and wonderfully well observed and, as with all the strange books Sherborne writes, a triumph…The main character [is] one of the great portraits of up-against-it Australian womanhood in our literature, a figure to put with Lawson’s Drover’s Wife and Barbara Baynton’s women.’  Peter Craven, Sydney Morning Herald

Publisher: Text Publishing


Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Blackout by Connie Willis


Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place, with scores of time-traveling historians being sent into the past. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser into letting her go to VE-Day. 

Polly Churchill’s next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz. But now the time-travel lab is suddenly cancelling assignments and switching around everyone’s schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, and dive-bombing Stukas--to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiralling out of control. Because suddenly the once-reliable mechanisms of time travel are showing significant glitches, and our heroes are beginning to question their most firmly held belief: that no historian can possibly change the past. Look out for the next book 'All Clear' after you devour 'Blackout'!

Category: Science Fiction

Who'll want to read it?  Anyone delighted to see any new book by Connie Willis, but particularly one that returns to the time-travel premise she explored so deftly in classics such as Doomsday Book.

Classic line: “I’m not studying the heroes who lead navies—and armies—and win wars. I’m studying ordinary people who you wouldn’t expect to be heroic, but who, when there’s a crisis, show extraordinary bravery and self-sacrifice. Like Jenna Geidel, who gave her life vaccinating people during the Pandemic. And the fishermen and retired boat owners and weekend sailors who rescued the British Army from Dunkirk. And Wells Crowther, the twenty-four-year-old equities trader who worked in the World Trade Center. When it was hit by terrorists, he could have gotten out, but instead he went back and saved ten people, and died. I’m going to observe six different sets of heroes in six different situations to try to determine what qualities they have in common.” 

Publisher: Spectra

Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill


The size of this slender book lures you in.. what possible impact could such a story have that can be read cover to cover on one Sunday afternoon. It's been months since I finished it and I still can't stop thinking about it. Extremely funny, often sad - Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill invites you in for a cup of tea and kicks you in the guts. From the point of view of a young writer referred to simply as 'the wife', we are shown short bursts of observation and memory—comic, startling, searing. Daily life, narrative of marriage, parenthood, ageing, introspective questions - how to be the artist. A book I couldn't put down and then forced into the hands of all my friends.





Category: Literary Fiction

Who'll want to read it? Lovers of intense and witty meditations on motherhood, infidelity, and identity.

Point of no return: “My plan was to never get married. I was going to be an art monster instead. Women almost never become art monsters because art monsters only concern themselves with art, never mundane things. Nabokov didn't even fold his own umbrella. Vera licked his stamps for him.” 

Classic line: So many...

“And that phrase - 'sleeping like a baby.' Some blonde said it blithely on the subway the other day. I wanted to lie down next to her and scream for five hours in her ear.” 

“I bought a warmer coat with many ingenious pockets. You put your hands in all of them.”

“Advice for wives circa 1896: The indiscriminate reading of novels is one of the most injurious habits to which a married woman can be subject. Besides the false views of human nature it will impart … it produces an indifference to the performance of domestic duties, and contempt for ordinary realities.” 

“Her neighbor’s husband fell in love with a girl who served coffee to him every morning. She was twenty-three and wanted to be a dancer or a poet or a physical therapist. When he left his family, his wife said, “Does it matter to you how foolish you look? That all our friends find you ridiculous?” He stood in the doorway, his coat in his hand. “No,” he said. The wife watched her neighbor get fat over the next year. The Germans have a word for that. Kummerspeck. Literally, grief bacon.” 

Publisher: Penguin Random House

 Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

By the author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven (which I loved), and Tuesdays with Morrie (which I haven't read, but must get around to one day), this book is about three main people: Victor, a man who wants more time; Sarah, a teenager who wants time to stop; and Dor, the first person to count and measure time.

Category:
Adult fiction

Who'll want to read it?
People who like the concept of time, and those who enjoy Mitch Albom's writing style.

Point of no return:
page 4, the last three lines of the prologue:
"Soon Father Time will be free.
To return to Earth.
And finish what he started."

Classic lines:
page 18:
Pass time. Waste time. Kill time. Lose time.
In good time. About time. Take your time. Save time.
A long time. Right on time. Out of time. Mind the time. Be on time. Spare time. Keep time. Stall for time.

page 61:
The pool of voices was formed by Dor's tears, but he was only the first to weep. As mankind grew obsessed with its hours, the sorrow of lost time became a permanent hole in the human heart.

Publisher:
Sphere

Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.