Staff faves...July 2023

Published on 29 June 2023

As we embrace the depths of winter's chill, our staff warmly recommend captivating titles that will help you while away the winter days.

Sue just finished reading Heather Rose’s biography nothing bad ever happens here. Having previously read two of her novels – ‘The Museum of Modern Love’ and ‘Bruny’, she was intrigued to learn about the author’s life in this personal and moving account where she lays bare some of her most intimate thoughts and takes the reader with her through the intricacies of enlightening and gruelling experiences. 

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Kate recently finished Love and Autism on audiobook by Kay Kerr (and narrated by her). It was a really authentic, honest account of love, experienced through the eyes of five neurodivergent people. As an autistic author Kay’s candid interview style and personal experiences weave through the book and offer beautiful insights for both neurotypical and neurodivergent readers on love and how other people experience and express love. Would highly recommend!

Listen to Love and Autism

Jann recently finished All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien

This story follows a young Vietnamese Australian woman, Ky, searching for answers to her brother’s murder. The story switches between Ky’s voice and that of the witnesses – who initially claim to have seen nothing. It is a thought-provoking look at family and community, the lives of refugees in Australia, the racism they face and the struggle of belonging in a new and very different environment. Well worth the read.

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Shana read Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker

After being disappointed at the end of Book 7, (The Missing Sister) when the story wasn’t finished, I was left with everyone else hanging for a conclusion. Sadly, Lucinda Riley died before publishing Atlas.

Thankfully her son Harry has done a great job of piecing together the final chapter. It tied together lots of loose ends and was a warm-hearted finish for both the family and reader.  

Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook

Lulu listened to eAudiobook  A little life by Hanya Yanagihara

I’m late to the party with this book I know! It was overwhelmingly sad, but I couldn’t stop listening to it. I don’t think I will ever forget this book!

Listen to A little Life

Lulu also read Mad honey by Jodie Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan. I enjoyed this book with bee keeping facts and it kept me guessing until the end.

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Claire read The It Girl by Ruth Ware.

A murder mystery  book set between Edinburgh and Oxford.  Both are special places to me so I knew exactly where the action was happening.  I thought I knew who the killer was, then I was certain it was another person, then definitely another. I loved it and read it in record time.

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Bec recently listened to Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas, on Borrowbox. I found it to be a beautifully written story about the memory of a first love, loss and longing. Madelaine writes vividly of her memories holidaying by the sea and the relationships she forms there.

Listen to Thirst for Salt

Amanda had been reading The Secret Barrister: stories of the law and how it’s broken by The Secret Barrister This series of books has shot to fame – or should that be notoriety? – for exposing the failures in the criminal justice system in the UK, mainly as a result of cost cutting ‘efficiencies’, via his wildly popular blog. He shares with his readers the sheer exhaustion faced by those on the side of treating people decently, and the prejudice many feel towards those who, sometimes through absolutely no fault of their own, find themselves in the dock or sharing a cell. It’s a very interesting read on how that system, much of which is followed in Australia, came to be historically, and the principles it struggles to maintain. Commit a crime at your peril; or worse, be found to have committed one.

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Marina has been reading 100 Tales from Australia's Most Haunted Places by Ben Pobjie.

Blackly humorous - from the ghostly black horse of Sutton Forest to the butcher of Adelaide Street, a haunted Brisbane lift to the chilling experiments carried out by Doctor Blood of the North Kapunda Hotel, Australia abounds in spooky stories that are all unnervingly based in fact and tied to real places to visit or avoid. In 100 Tales from Australia's Most Haunted Places, comedy writer and general scaredy cat Ben Pobjie communes with the spirit world to send a shiver down your spine. A book best read with the light left on.

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