Nicotine by Nell Zink

$13.95 AUD

$29.99 (53% off)

Category: FICTION | Reading Level: very good

From the much acclaimed author of MISLAID and THE WALLCREEPER, a fierce and audaciously funny novel of families-both the ones we're born into and the ones we create-a story of obsession, idealism, and ownership, centered around a young woman who inherits her bohemian late father's childhood home. Recent business school graduate Penny Baker has rebelled against her family her whole life-by being the conventional one. Her mother, Amalia, was a member of a South American tribe called the Kogi; her much older father, Norm, long ago attained cult-like deity status among a certain cohort of ageing hippies while operating a psychedelic 'healing centre.' And she's never felt particularly close to her much older half-brothers from Norm's previous marriage-one wickedly charming and obscenely rich (but mostly just wicked), one a photographer on a distant tropical island. But all that changes when her father dies, and Penny inherits his childhood home in New Jersey. She goes to investigate the property and finds it not overgrown and abandoned, but rather occupied by a group of friendly anarchist squatters whom she finds unexpectedly charming, and who have renamed the property "Nicotine." The Nicotine residents (united in defence of smokers' rights) possess the type of passion and fervour Penny feels she's desperately lacking, and the other squatter houses in the neighbourhood provide a sense of community she has never felt before. She soon moves into a nearby residence, becoming enmeshed in the political fervour and commitment of her fellow squatters. As the Baker family's lives begin to converge around the fate of the house now called Nicotine, Penny grows ever bolder and more desperate to protect it-and its residents-until a fateful night when a reckless confrontation between her old family and her new one changes everything. Nell Zink exquisitely captures the clash between Baby-Boomer idealism and Millennial pragmatism, between the have-nots and want-mores, in a riotous yet tender novel that brilliantly encapsulates our time. ...Show more

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

$19.99 AUD

Category: FICTION | Reading Level: very good

The debut novel from the author of Normal People. A sharply intelligent novel about friendship, lust, jealousy, and the unexpected complications of adulthood in the 21st century Frances is a cool-headed and darkly observant young woman vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. He r best friend and comrade-in-arms is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, Frances and Bobbi catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into Melissa's world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick. However amusing and ironic Frances and Nick's flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy, and Frances' friendship with Bobbi begins to fracture. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally, terribly, with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile her inner life to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances' intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment. Written with gemlike precision and marked by a sly sense of humor, Conversations with Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth and the messy edges of female friendship. Winner of the 2017 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year.  "Sharp, funny, thought-provoking . . . a really great portrait of two young women as they're figuring out how to be adults."- Celeste Ng, "Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast". ...Show more

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

$23.99 AUD

Category: FICTION

A 2012 Michael L. Printz Honor Book Charlie Bucktin, a bookish thirteen year old, is startled one summer night by an urgent knock on his bedroom window. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in their small mining town, and he has come to ask for Charlie's help. Terribly afraid but desperate to impres s, Charlie follows him into the night. Jasper takes him to his secret glade, where Charlie witnesses Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion. He locks horns with his tempestuous mother, falls nervously in love, and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart. ...Show more

The Three Secret Cities (#5 Jack West) by Matthew Reilly

$16.99 AUD

Category: FICTION

No. 1 bestselling action author Matthew Reilly continues his explosive Jack West Jr series with The Three Secret Cities. A SHADOW WORLD When Jack West Jr won the Great Games, he threw the four legendary kingdoms into turmoil.BEHIND THE REAL WORLDNow these dark forces are coming after Jack...in ruthless fashion.CRASHING INTO OUR WORLDWith the end of all things rapidly approaching, Jack must find three incredible lost cities of legend.It's an impossible task by any reckoning, but Jack must do it while he is being hunted...'One of the best action-thrillers published in the past few years' Washington Post'An ending that will perhaps make you rethink everything you took for granted about his books' Sunday Age ...Show more

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

$29.99 AUD

Category: FICTION | Reading Level: very good

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews, who survived Auschwitz and eventually made their home in Australia. In that terrible place, Lale was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival-literally scratching numbers into his fell ow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust. Lale used the infinitesimal freedom of movement that this position awarded him to exchange jewels and money taken from murdered Jews for food to keep others alive. If he had been caught he would have been killed; many owed him their survival. There have been many books about the Holocaust-and there will be many more. What makes this one so memorable is Lale Sokolov's incredible zest for life. He understood exactly what was in store for him and his fellow prisoners and he was determined to survive-not just to survive, but to leave the camp with his dignity and integrity intact, to live his life to the full. Terrible though this story is, it is also a story of hope and of courage. It is also-almost unbelievably-a love story. Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale-a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer-it was love at first sight, and he determined not only to survive himself but to ensure that Gita did, too. His story-their story-will make you weep, but you will also find it uplifting. It shows the very best of humanity in the very worst of circumstances. Like many survivors, Lale and Gita told few people their story after the war. They eventually made their way to Australia, where they raised a son and had a successful life. But when Gita died, Lale felt he could no longer carry the burden of their past alone. He chose to tell his story. ...Show more

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

$19.99 AUD

Category: FICTION | Reading Level: very good

No one's ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine. Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.   But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond's big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.   Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .   The only way to survive is to open your heart. ...Show more

The Yield (Miles Franklin 2020 winner) by Tara June Winch

$32.99 AUD

Category: FICTION

Just tell the truth and someone will hear it eventually. The Yield in English is the reaping, the things that man can take from the land. In the language of the Wiradjuri yield is the things you give to, the movement, the space between things. Knowing that he will soon die, Albert ‘Poppy’ Gondiwindi t akes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind. August Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for ten years when she learns of her grandfather’s death. She returns home for his burial, wracked with grief and burdened with all she tried to leave behind. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. Profoundly moving and exquisitely written, Tara June Winch’s The Yield is the story of a people and a culture dispossessed. But it is as much a celebration of what was and what endures, and a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity. ...Show more

Hero For Hire/Hero For Hire/Shadow Hawk/A Royal Mess by Jill Shalvis

$13.95 AUD

$29.99 (53% off)

Category: FICTION

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis brings you three classic stories about finding yourself in unexpected predicaments...Hero For HireBrazilian heiress Terry Monteverde was supposedly killed in a tragic accident. But how could a dead woman give birth to a baby? Bounty hunter Rick Singleton go es underground in Rio to find out.His only lead is Terry's sister, Nina Monteverde. She's sweet, shy  and not telling what she knows. Rick's a dangerous man to cross, but Nina's not afraid...Rick is. He's defenceless against her innocent charm. And that scares the hell out of him.Shadow HawkWhen his latest mission turns into a bloodbath, Agent Conner Hawk realises he has been set up by someone at the top. Wounded and on the run, he has no choice but to take beautiful Abby Wells hostage. After all, she's in danger too.And if the only way to keep the fiercely independent communications expert safe is to cuff her and bring her along for the ride, he'll do it. Only, given their close contact, it's not long before Hawk's thinking about a totally different kind of pleasure.A Royal MessFirst she's bumped from first class to coach, then she's robbed, gets soaked in a rainstorm and now is stranded on a ranch full of animals she's afraid of!As far as days go, Princess Natalia Brunner has definitely had better ones. If not for the timely rescue by a good-looking cowboy, she would have quit this day long ago. But just like the old Westerns, the sexy Tim Banning has her thinking she should hang up her tiara and stay awhile... ...Show more

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

$22.99 AUD

Category: FICTION

Queenie Jenkins can't cut a break. Well, apart from one from her long term boyfriend, Tom. That's definitely just a break though. Definitely not a break up. Stuck between a boss who doesn't seem to see her, a family who don't seem to listen (if it's not Jesus or water rates, they're not interested), and trying to fit in two worlds that don't really understand her, it's no wonder she's struggling. She was named to be queen of everything. So why is she finding it so hard to rule her own life? Perfect for fans of Dolly Alderton, Sally Rooney and Diana Evans, and anyone who loved Fleabag and Dear White People. ...Show more

Bring Me Back by B. A. Paris

$13.95 AUD

$29.99 (53% off)

Category: FICTION

THE NEW TWISTY, GRIPPING READ FROM B. A. PARIS, THE AUTHOR OF THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING NOVELS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS AND THE BREAKDOWN "We're in a new Golden Age of suspense writing now, because of amazing books like Bring Me Back, and I for one am loving it." --Lee Child "[An ] outstanding Hitchcockian thriller." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) She went missing. He moved on. A whole world of secrets remained--until now. Finn and Layla are young, in love, and on vacation. They're driving along the highway when Finn decides to stop at a service station to use the restroom. He hops out of the car, locks the doors behind him, and goes inside. When he returns Layla is gone--never to be seen again. That is the story Finn told to the police. But it is not the whole story. Ten years later Finn is engaged to Layla's sister, Ellen. Their shared grief over what happened to Layla drew them close and now they intend to remain together. Still, there's something about Ellen that Finn has never fully understood. His heart wants to believe that she is the one for him...even though a sixth sense tells him not to trust her. Then, not long before he and Ellen are to be married, Finn gets a phone call. Someone from his past has seen Layla--hiding in plain sight. There are other odd occurrences: Long-lost items from Layla's past that keep turning up around Finn and Ellen's house. Emails from strangers who seem to know too much. Secret messages, clues, warnings. If Layla is alive--and on Finn's trail--what does she want? And how much does she know? A tour de force of psychological suspense, Bring Me Back will have you questioning everything and everyone until its stunning climax. ...Show more

The Rules of Backyard Croquet by Sunni Overend

$13.95 AUD

$29.99 (53% off)

Category: FICTION

All's fair in love and couture ... Fashion and love collide in the stylish new novel from the author of The Dangers of Truffle Hunting. Disgraced fashion prodigy Apple March has gone into hiding, concealing herself within the cashmere and silk folds of a formerly grand fashion boutique - the hanging of blouses and handling of difficult patrons now her only concern.But when her sister Poppy needs a wedding dress, old passions are reignited ... along with threats from her past.As Apple finds herself falling for someone she shouldn't, her quest to re-emerge becomes entangled in a time she wants forgotten, and life unravels as quickly as it began to mend.From the cool heart of Melbourne, to Paris and New York, in an effervescent world of croquet, Campari and cocoon coats, can Apple prevail over demons past to become the woman she was born to be?Praise for The Dangers of Truffle Hunting:'It's Overend's way with words that had us picking the book and giving it prime position as our #1 read' Vogue'Exotic and exciting ... well developed characters ... richly detailed ... enjoyable summer read ... just divine!' Books + Publishing'[This book] is insanely attractive. It has it all - lust, love, fame, wine, rich people, the whole shebang. It had me rooting for the protagonist and left me heart-warmed throughout' Fashion Journal ...Show more

The Land Girls (PB) by Victoria Purman

$16.99 AUD

Category: FICTION

A moving story of love, loss and survival against the odds by bestselling author of The Last of the Bonegilla Girls, Victoria Purman. It was never just a man's war... Melbourne,1942 War has engulfed Europe and now the Pacific, and Australia is fighting for its future. For spinster Flora Atkins, however, nothing much has changed. Tending her dull office job and beloved brother and father, as well as knitting socks for the troops, leaves her relatively content. Then one day a stranger gives her brother a white feather and Flora's anger propels her out of her safe life and into the vineyards of the idyllic Mildura countryside, a member of the Australian Women's Land Army. There she meets Betty, a 17-year-old former shopgirl keen to do her bit for the war effort and support her beloved, and the unlikely Lilian, a well-to-do Adelaide girl fleeing her overbearing family and theworld's expectations for her. As the Land Girls embrace their new world of close-knit community and backbreaking work, they begin to find pride in their roles. More than that, they start to find a kind of liberation. For Flora, new friendships and the singular joy derived from working the land offer new meaning to her life, and even the possibility of love. But as the clouds of war darken the horizon, and their fears for loved ones - brothers, husbands, lovers - fighting at the front grow, the Land Girls' hold on their world and their new-found freedoms is fragile. Even if they make it through unscathed, they will not come through unchanged...   ...Show more