SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
New Book Highlights
ANIMAL STORIES
| Pethick, Sue | Please don’t feed the mayor |
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BIOGRAPHY
| Gidla, Sujatha | Ants among elephants |
| Jenkins, Michael | A house in Flanders |
| Llewellyn, Caro | Diving into glass |
| Seymour, Miranda | In Byron’s wake |
Ants among elephants / Sujatha Gidla
In this brilliant debut, Gidla documents the story of her resilient family and India’s modern political history. Gidla grew up in India as an untouchable, the lowest category in India’s caste system, and now works as a subway conductor in New York City. In this epic, she shares intimate stories of her uncle Satyam, a revolutionary poet and steadfast communist; her uncle Carey, a hapless yet ardent supporter of Satyam; and her mother Manjula, the core of the family’s strength. Her uncle Satyam was a political organizer within the movement that won its demand for statehood for Andhra Pradesh from former president Nehru. Gidla eloquently weaves together her family narratives with Indian politics, specifically focusing on the practices and consequences of caste inequality. The book is also a fascinating chronicle of the corruption within and political battles between India’s Congress Party and its Communist Party. Gidla is a smart and deeply sympathetic narrator who tells the lesser known history of India’s modern communist movement. The book never flags, whether covering Satyam’s political awakening as a young and poor bohemian or Manjula’s rocky marriage to a mercurial and violent man. Gidla writes about the heavy topics of poverty, caste and gender inequality, and political corruption with grace and wit. Gidla’s work is an essential contribution to contemporary Indian literature. (Publishers Weekly, 22 May 2017)
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GENERAL FICTION
| Baily, Virginia | The fourth shore |
| Bank, Melissa | The girls’ guide to hunting and fishing |
| Bartz, Andrea | The lost night |
| Coben, Harlan | Run away |
| Eggers, Dave | The parade |
| French, Jackie | The lily in the snow |
| Frew, Peggy | Islands |
| Greaney, Mark | Mission critical |
| Groen, Hendrik | On the bright side |
| Grossman, Gary | Executive actions |
| Heiny, Katherine | Standard deviation |
| Hustvedt, Siri | Memories of the future |
| Iles, Greg | Cemetery Road |
| Jackson, Lisa | Backlash |
| Jordan, Toni | The fragments |
| Kushner, Rachel | The Mars room |
| Kuznetsova, Maria | Oksana, behave! |
| Lee, Jing-Jing | How we disappeared |
| Meissner, Susan | The last year of the war |
| Moretti, Kate | Vanishing year |
| Nunez, Sigrid | The friend |
| Pyun, Hye-young | The hole |
| Quinn, Kate | The huntress |
| Robards, Karen | The fifth doctrine |
| Robinson, Alice | The glad shout |
| Shearston, Trevor | Hare’s fur |
| Smith, Ali | Winter |
| Stuart, Anna | Bonnie and Stan |
| Tiffany, Carrie | Exploded view |
| Tyce, Harriet | Blood orange |
The fragments / Toni Jordan
Toni Jordan’s latest offering will intrigue and engage as she tries on a new genre for size – and it is an excellent fit. The book begins as bookseller Caddie Walker is standing in a queue out the front of the Brisbane Art Gallery in the summer of 1986. She is waiting in line to see ‘Fragments’, an exhibition of ephemera of the brilliant yet reclusive author Inga Karlson. She died in a New York warehouse fire on the eve of the release of her much-anticipated second novel in 1939. Her death and the mystery surrounding it ensured legendary status for the author and for the never-published book. The exhibition more than lives up to Caddie’s elevated expectations as she sees first-hand the scorched fragments of all that remains of the unpublished novel, but it is a conversation with a stranger outside the gallery revealing a previously unknown fact about the second novel that turns Caddie’s fascination with the late author into a full-blown obsession with uncovering the truth. Through alternating viewpoints, we meet Inga Karlson in a series of flashbacks to the bohemian world of late 1930s New York which contrasts wildly with the hot steamy Brisbane of the mid-1980s as Caddie attempts to piece together the events leading up to Inga’s death. Caddie’s quest is personal as she faces her own demons and lays to rest some of the ghosts of her own past while attempting to solve a mystery that has eluded scholars and academics for almost 50 years. (Good Reading Magazine, February 2019)
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HISTORICAL FICTION
| O’Connor, Mary-Anne | In a great Southern Land |
| Robertson, Imogen | Anatomy of murder |
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MYSTERY
| Blaedel, Sara | Her father’s secret |
| Celestin, Ray | Mobster’s lament |
| Dahl, Kjell Ola | The ice swimmer |
| Ellis, Karen | Last night |
| Finlay, Mick | The murder pit |
| Gardner, Lisa | Never tell |
| Giordano, Mario | Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna |
| Grebe, Camilla | After she’s gone |
| Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia | Headlong |
| Heath, Jack | Hunter |
| Herron, Mick | The last voice you hear |
| Huang, Christopher | A gentleman’s murder |
| Jones, Stephen Mack | Lives laid away |
| Khan, Ausma Zehanat | A deadly divide |
| Lansdale, Joe R. | The elephant of surprise |
| Lepionka, Kristen | What you want to see |
| Lincoln, John | Fade to grey |
| May, Peter | The man with no face |
| McCall Smith, Alexander | The Department of Sensitive Crimes |
| McMahon, John | The good detective |
| Murphy, Shirley Rousseau | Cat shout for joy |
| Oswald, James | Cold as the grave |
| Patterson, James | 18th abduction |
| Patterson, James | The cornwalls are gone |
| Pattison, Eliot | Bones of the earth |
| Reeve, Alex | The house on Half Moon Street |
| Ritter, Todd | Death notice |
| Rose, Karen | Say you’re sorry |
| Russell, Craig | The devil aspect |
A gentleman’s murder / Christopher Huang
Set in 1924, Huang’s impressive debut will delight fans of golden age detective fiction. Eric Peterkin, a WWI veteran who evaluates murder mystery manuscripts for possible publication, belongs to a London club, the Britannia, whose one requirement for membership, “aside from being a gentleman,” is “experience on the battlefield in the service of the Empire.” Peterkin is present for an unusual wager at the Britannia. Mortimer Wolfe bets the club’s newest member, Albert Benson, that he can break into Benson’s safe-deposit box in the club’s vault and remove the contents by the next day. Benson later shows Peterkin what’s in the box: a hypodermic kit, a pair of surgical scissors, a photo of a nurse smiling over a birthday cake, and a medical report on facial injuries. Benson asserts that these items will “right a great wrong from the past.” The following day, in front of the club members overseeing the wager, Wolfe produces the hypodermic kit and the scissors, claiming that was all that was in the box. When the men check the Britannia vault, they find Benson dead with a letter opener in his neck. Peterkin takes it upon himself to both solve the murder and carry on Benson’s quest for justice. Huang’s plotting, characters, and atmosphere are all top-notch. (Publishers Weekly, 27 August 2018)
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NON FICTION
| Ackroyd, Peter | Civil War | 942.06 ACKR |
| Barker, Phil, J. | The revolution of man | 305.31 BARK |
| Brett, Judith | From secret ballot to democracy sausage | 324.65 BRET |
| Forde, Eamonn | The final days of EMI | 338.7 FORD |
| Gundry, Steven R. | The longevity paradox | 613.2 GUND |
| Hitchens, Christopher | The four horsemen | 211.8 HITC |
| Morrison, Toni | Mouth full of blood | 818.5409 MORR |
| Shapiro, Ben | The right side of history | 306.0973 SHAP |
| Zimmer, Carl | She has her mother’s laugh | 576.5 ZIMM |
She has her mother’s laugh / Carl Zimmer
In a magnificent work exploring virtually all aspects of heredity, journalist Zimmer, masterfully blends exciting storytelling with first-rate science reporting. Although he lucidly explains the basics of Mendelian genetics—which address inheritance and biological diversity—he goes far beyond that topic to explore the complexities of genetic inheritance. For example he notes that there are at least 800 genes influencing height in humans, but collectively they explain only about one-quarter of the heritability of that trait. Zimmer is not shy about taking on controversial topics like the genetics of race, arguing that there aren’t genetic fingerprints for race (“Ancient DNA doesn’t simply debunk the notion of white purity. It debunks the very name white”), and making the case that it is currently all but impossible to draw significant conclusions about the roles genes play in overall intelligence. He also probes developing field of epigenetics (changes in gene expression rather than alteration of genetic code) as well as the role of genetics in developmental and cancer biologies. Zimmer’s writing is rich, whether he’s describing the history of the field or examining the latest research and ethical issues certain to arise. His book is as engrossing as it is enlightening. (Publishers Weekly, 19 February 2018)
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Caruso, Melissa | The defiant heir |
| Chambers, Becky | The long way to a small, angry planet |
| Collins, Bridget | The binding |
| Grant, Mira | Into the drowning deep |
The binding / Bridget Collins
In the absence of specific dates, this novel suggests its period with various clues: small farms, no plumbing, gaslight, horse-drawn carriages, factories but no trains. The backdrop is a Crusade that, indeterminate decades ago, caused books to be, if not entirely forbidden, then tightly regulated and socially taboo. Emmett is sent by his farmer parents to be apprenticed to an elderly bookbinder named Seredith, who practices her craft in an isolated house near a marsh. Recently, Emmett suffered an illness which marked him as unfit for anything but binding, which, he rapidly learns, means more than handcrafting books. Customers come to Seredith to have their memories wiped of disturbing experiences through confessions she then enshrines in beautifully bound books and locks up. One such patron/patient is Lucian, a young gentleman who will figure—or has figured; we won’t know until later—significantly in Emmett’s life. There is a brisk underground trade in true bindings, as opposed to mere novels, and unscrupulous binders exploit this market. Among them is Mr. de Havilland, Seredith’s son, who, after her suspicious death, appropriates her stock of secret bindings, which, like loaded guns, will make explosive appearances later. The worldview of this novel is bleak, but readers will not fail to appreciate the many sly analogies to the true-story–obsessed publishing world of today. Though set in an alternate universe, Collins’ fictional world rings very true. (Kirkus Reviews, 4 February 2019)
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TRAVEL
| Tan, Monica | Stranger country | 919.4 TAN |
| Winn, Raynor | The salt path | 305.5 WINN |
The salt path / Raynor Winn
The day after Raynor and Moth found out they were going to lose the Welsh farm where they had brought up their two children, a doctor told Moth that he had a rare and incurable degenerative brain disease. Within days the bailiffs came knocking and they were homeless. So what do you do when you’re in your 50s, have lost all your worldly possessions and been diagnosed with a terminal illness? Naturally, you decide to walk the South West Coast Path, from Minehead in Somerset, through north Devon, Cornwall and south Devon, to Poole in Dorset, via Land’s End. A 630-mile walk, equivalent to climbing Mount Everest four times. “Are you mad?” asks their daughter, and as they set off, each with a heavy rucksack, Raynor agrees that they are. But as their world collapses around them, the coastal path gives them a purpose and offers them the desperate hope that on the way they can find some kind of future. Their journey is filled with as many ups and downs as the undulating cliff-edge route. Yet the freedom of wild camping, swimming in the moonlit sea and surviving on fudge and pasties allows them to come to terms with their situation and learn to hope again. Filled with wry humour, this is a wonderfully uplifting and touching book, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Costa biography award. (The Guardian, 7 February 2019)
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New additions to eBooks at SMSA
EBOOKS
| Biography | Bingham, Charlotte | A coronet among the weeds |
| General | McCallum, Fiona | A life of her own |
| General | Moriarty, Jaclyn | Gravity is the thing |
| General | Watt, Holly | To the lions |
| Historical novels | Massimo, Valerio | Wolves of Rome |
| Mystery | Cahoon, Lyn | One potato, two potato, dead |
| Mystery | Griffy, J. D. | Murder in tranquility park |
| Mystery | Heath, Jack | Hunter |
| Mystery | Warner, Dave | River of salt |
| Travel | Norris, Mary | Greek to me |
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AUDIOBOOKS
| Biography | Hindman, Jessica | Sounds like Titanic |
| General | Beard, Janet | The atomic city girls |
| Mystery | Adams, Ellery | A killer keepsake |
| Mystery | Buzzelli, Elizabeth | She stopped for death |
| Mystery | Chase, Julie | Cat got your diamonds |
| Mystery | Goldenbaum, Sally | Murder wears mittens |
| Mystery | Graves, Sarah | Death by chocolate malted milkshake |
| Mystery | Lin, Harper | Lattes, ladyfingers and lies |
| Mystery | Mofina, Rick | Missing daughter |
| Romance | Quinn, Julia | A night like this |
Atomic city girls / Janet Beard
Beard’s satisfying second novel gives a human dimension to the lesser-known true-life events that took place in Oak Ridge, Tenn., during World War II. Eighteen-year-old June Walker leaves her family and simple upbringing behind to work at the brand-new Oak Ridge facility (where security is tight and breaches aren’t tolerated), learning to turn dials on machines whose function she doesn’t understand. Her roommate, the glamorous Cici Roberts, makes finding a husband her priority. In the bare-bones segregated hutments that house African-American workers, Joe Brewer works tirelessly while pining for his family back home. Meanwhile, June starts a romance with physicist Sam Cantor, who is working to produce uranium for the atomic bomb being developed in Los Alamos. As June learns more about the project, she must reconcile her own part in it with her love for the increasingly volatile Sam, who comes from a very different world. Beard’s fascinating narrative brings to life four people with different outlooks and dreams whose fates memorably intertwine. (Publishers Weekly, 1 January 2018)
Murder wears mittens / Sally Goldenbaum
When unassuming Dolores Cardozo is found dead in her home and single-mom Kayla Stewart vanishes, the Seaside Knitters—Cass Halloran, Izzy Perry, Nell Endicott, and Birdie Favazza—shift into sleuthing mode, in Goldenbaum’s comforting 12th cozy set in Sea Harbor, Mass. (after 2016’s Murder at Lambswool Farm). The four friends discover some unsuspected truths in the course of investigating Dolores’s murder and figuring out what happened to Kayla. Meanwhile, they take time to enjoy a martini, a glass of champagne, or just a nice cup of coffee. As usual, the mystery element is slight, with clues doled out in between family reunions, meals, and walks on the beach. Goldenbaum has created an idyllic world in which good friends, good works, and discussing the passing of time and changes in the community are as important as solving crimes. (Publishers Weekly, 10 July 2017)
Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake / Sarah Graves
In fighting to save their bakery in Eastport, Maine, two women get wrapped up in a murder mystery–which leads to plenty of drama in this audiobook. When Toby Moran, a notorious womanizer, is murdered by a poisoned milkshake from The Chocolate Moose, best friends Jake and Ellie become alarmed. Further, they learn that the bride whose catering order they are counting on to save the bakery is suspected of the murder, potentially canceling the wedding and bankrupting the bakery. In voicing the character of Jake, narrator Susan Boyce adds to the drama, seeming to channel the character’s anxious moments as well as her happy ones. The audio production of this fun mystery enhances the story. (Audiofile, 2019)
A night like this / Julia Quinn
Returning to England from an enforced three-year sojourn in Europe after crippling a friend in a duel, Daniel Smythe-Smith, Earl of Winstead, arrives just in time for his family’s annual musicale and is instantly captivated by a breathtakingly beautiful woman at the keyboard–a woman who is definitely not one of his relatives. But Anne Wynter, governess to Daniel’s three young cousins, is a lady-in-hiding from a dangerous, scandal-tainted past–a past that returns to threaten both their evolving relationship and their lives. A cruel, sadistic villain adds a dash of uncharacteristic violence, making this intriguing story darker than Quinn’s usual lighthearted fare. Once again fans are swept up in the offbeat antics of the Smythe-Smith clan and will be rewarded with lively humor, delightful romance, and surprisingly thrilling suspense. (Publishers Weekly, 15 June 2012)
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New Books — April 2019
The new books for April are now available to borrow, along with new ebooks and audiobooks.
We hope you enjoy them!
- New books may be borrowed for a period of two weeks only and may not be renewed.
- Books remain listed as “New Books” for two months.
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