SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
New Book Highlights
ANIMAL STORIES
| Leonard, Dion | Finding Gobi |
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BIOGRAPHY
| Aldridge, John | A speck in the sea |
| Cumming, Alan | Not my father’s son |
| Di Maio, Vincent J. M. | Morgue |
| Frank, Michael | The mighty Franks |
| Gay, Roxane | Hunger |
| Junor, Penny | The duchess |
| Moorhead, Joanna | The surreal life of Leonora Carrington |
| Sharif, Manal | Daring to drive |
Daring to drive / Manal al-Sharif
Arrested and imprisoned for “driving while female” in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, in 2011, Saudi author and activist al-Sharif, chronicles her long path to feminist activism within a deeply conservative Islamic culture. From forced circumcision at age 8, to extreme segregation between the sexes in her poor community of Mecca, the author found emancipation very gradually. Indeed, in Saudi Arabia, the dictates of religious culture, rather than law, were and are iron-clad regarding women; al-Sharif required the permission of her father to pursue everything from education at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah to her first job at Aramco to marriage. The author’s decision to drive emerged from a long frustration with getting around via hired drivers and costly taxis, as all Saudi women were consigned to do: in a kind of perverse logic, al-Sharif had bought a car for her hired driver to use. Yet after a liberating work trip in America, where she got an actual license, she convinced her brother to help her drive and sympathetic women friends to video the great moment behind the wheel, which led to her arrest and harassment by the religious police. An intimate and powerful book from what is hopefully only the first of many Saudi voices to speak out. (Kirkus Reviews,1 April 2017)
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CRAFT
| Francois-Campbell, J. | Simple tailoring and alterations |
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GARDENING
| Peerless, Veronica | How not to kill your houseplant |
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GENERAL FICTION
| Alameddine, Rabih | The angel of history |
| Atkins, Ace | The fallen |
| Barton, Fiona | The child |
| Bollen, Christopher | The destroyers |
| Cheng, Melanie | Australia day |
| Coble, Kaela | Friends and liars |
| Desai, Anita | The complete stories |
| Ephron, Delia | Siracusa |
| Finder, Joseph | The switch |
| Fitzgerald, Michael E. J. | The Pacific room |
| Green, Jane | The sunshine sisters |
| Hayes-McCoy, Felicity | Summer at the Garden Cafe |
| Hazel, James | The mayfly |
| Healy, Sarah | The sisters chase |
| Hughes-Hallett, Lucy | Peculiar ground |
| Irani, Anosh | The parcel |
| Johnson, Jane | Court of lions |
| Lang, Steven | Hinterland |
| Le Corre, Herve | After the war |
| Macauley, Wayne | Some tests |
| Malmquist, Tom | In every moment we are still alive |
| McCormack, Mike | Solar bones |
| McDonald, Nelika | Deeper than the sea |
| McInerney, Monica | The trip of a lifetime |
| McMillan, Terry | I almost forgot about you |
| McNamara, Ali | The summer of serendipity |
| Montefiore, Santa | The last secret of the Deverills |
| Morrison, Zoe | Music and freedom |
| Newton, Liz | Jagged edge of joy |
| Pearse, Lesley | The woman in the wood |
| Ryan, Iain | The student |
| Sager, Riley | Final girls |
| Searle, Nicholas | A traitor in the family |
| Self, Will | Phone |
| Silva, Daniel | The secret servant |
| Smith, Dominic | The mercury visions of Louis Daguerre |
| Smith, Pip | Half wild |
| Spargo-Ryan, Anna | The gulf |
| Sullivan, Mark | Beneath a scarlet sky |
| Vidich, Paul | The good assassin |
| Winslow, Don | The force |
| Wood, Tom | The final hour |
| Woodhouse, Lily | Jarulan by the river |
A hundred small lessons / Ashley Hay 
Elsie Gormley had lived in and old Queensland house for 62 years. After a fall, however, she goes to live in an aged care facility. Her twin son and daughter sell the house to Ben Carter and Lucy Kiss, who are back in the city after years of travelling the world. Elsie cannot bear to let go the memories of her marriage to Clem, dead for more than 30 years, and her twins, the easygoing, biddable Don and the prickly, distant Elaine. Lucy is sensitive to the life that went on in her new home when the Gormley family lived there for all those years. She delights in the roll of doilies left behind a door when the house was stripped of Elsie’s possessions, and she puzzles over a box of photos she finds in the roof space. The themes of motherhood and marriage run strongly through this novel. For Elsie, those two aspects of life were deeply fulfilling. But they are not for Elaine, and while Lucy loves and delights in her toddler son, Tom, like any mother she sometimes reaches the end of her patience. Elsie seems like a real presence in the house to Lucy, and the author makes the reader wonder if Elsie is, in fact, wandering back to her old house. This gentle story blends the lives of two families with that of a house in a Brisbane suburb, peeling back layers to reveal the characters’ thoughts and hopes. (Good Reading, June 2017)
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HISTORICAL FICTION
| Druon, Maurice | The poisoned crown |
| Forsyth, Kate | Beauty in thorns |
| Gabaldon, Diana | Seven stones to stand or fall |
| Stockwin, Julian | The powder of death |
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MYSTERY
| Alexander, Tasha | The adventuress |
| Atkins, Ace | The fallen |
| Barker, J. D | The fourth monkey |
| Blake, Sam | In deep water |
| Boag, Charles | Mr Rainbow |
| Bolton, S. J. | Dead woman walking |
| Brandi, Mark | Wimmera |
| Clarke, Angela | Trust me |
| Connelly, Michael | The late show |
| Connolly, Sheila | Bitter harvest |
| Connolly, Sheila | Buried in a bog |
| D’Andrea, Luca | The mountain |
| Davies, Michelle | Gone astray |
| Davis, Karen Michelle | Fatal mistake |
| De la Motte, Anders | The silenced |
| Evanovich, Janet | Dangerous minds |
| Franklin, Miles | Bring the monkey |
| Free, David | Get poor slow |
| Harris, C. S. | When falcons fall |
| Hjorth, Michael | The silent girl |
| Holt, Anne | Offline |
| Jennings, Maureen | Poor Tom is cold |
| Longworth, M. L. | The curse of La Fontaine |
| McBeth, Colette | An act of silence |
| Meyrick, Denzil | Whisky from small glasses |
| Ohlsson, Kristina | The chosen |
| Patterson, James | The black book |
| Patterson, James | Never never |
| Pembrey, Daniel | Night market |
| Reichs, Kathy | Two nights |
| Robinson, Peter | Sleeping in the ground |
| Robotham, Michael | The secrets she keeps |
| Spillane, Mickey | The will to kill |
| Stabenow, Dana | Less than a treason |
| Steiner, Susie | Persons unknown |
| Trope, Nicole | Forgotten |
The curse of La Fontaine / M. L. Longworth
In Longworth ’s beguiling, leisurely paced sixth mystery featuring magistrate Antoine Verlaque and law professor Marine Bonnet (after 2015’s The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne), Bear Valets, the chef at a popular restaurant in the newlywed couple’s neighborhood in Aix-en-Provence, France, wants to expand into a historic courtyard—but finds himself running up against some powerful neighbors who are outraged at the idea of diners in their communal space. Valets barrels ahead with his plan, but while digging near the courtyard’s ancient fountain, he uncovers the skeleton of a murder victim and triggers what locals believe is a centuries-old curse . Bonnet goes undercover into a royalist group to learn about their possible connection to the murder, while Verlaque investigates the victim’s family—and the threats now being delivered to Valets. Longworth evokes the pleasures of France in delicious detail—great wine, delicious meals, and fine company. (Publishers Weekly, issue 08)
Forgotten / Nicole Trope
Malia is a working mum with three small children. After a chaotic morning, she coaxes the children into the car so they can get some milk for breakfast. Little does she know that this simple chore will change her life dramatically. After briefly leaving her youngest – five-month-old Zach – in the car so she doesn’t wake him, Malia discovers that he is missing. A troubled woman has taken Zach in a misguided attempt to win back her ex-husband and provide him with an instant family. After time in jail and the loss of her own child, Jackie is in a precarious mental state. Her intention is to care for Zach and treat him as she would her own child. Detective Sergeant Ali Greenberg has just returned to work after her second baby. Her first died of sudden infant death syndrome, and her colleagues are extremely concerned about her taking on the case of a missing baby. Despite her initial reservations, Ali believes that if she can put her emotions aside she would be the best officer to take on the case. All hands are on deck to find Zach, including those of Edna, who lives in a boarding house near the crime scene and who is watching the case unfold on television with great interest. Aside from the race against time, we see that a family crisis inevitably brings to the fore all manner of underlying problems. Forgotten will keep you on the edge of your seat. You’ll be anxious, sad, angry and hopeful almost all at once as you get an insight into every parent’s nightmare. (Good Reading, August 2017)
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NON FICTION
| Ackroyd, Peter | Queer city | 306.766 ACKR |
| Awad, Amal | Beyond veiled cliches | 305.48697 AWAD |
| Butler, Mark C. | Climate wars | 363.738 BUTL |
| Carter, Reece | The garden apothecary | 615.321 CART |
| De Courcy, Anne | The husband hunters | 941.081092 DeCO |
| Delaney, Brigid | Wellmania | 613 DELA |
| Eddo-Lodge, Reni | Why I’m no longer talking about race | 305.8 EDDO |
| Gooley, Tristan | The walker’s guide to outdoor clues and signs | 796.51 GOOL |
| Gray, Annie | The greedy queen | 941.081 GRAY |
| Gundry, Steven R. | The plant paradox | 582.13 GUND |
| Hillman, Ken | A good life to the end | 179.7 HILL |
| Hughes, Bettany | Istanbul | 949.618 HUGH |
| Jinks, Catherine | Charlatan | 364.153 JINK |
| Maslen, Geoffrey | An uncertain future | 598.0994 MASL |
| Miller, Patti | Writing true stories | 808.042 MILL |
Beyond veiled clichés / Amal Awad
In many Western countries, there is an increasing fear of terrorism and a distrust of ‘the other’. A lack of knowledge and understanding can lead to mistaken assumptions about an entire group of people. Arabic women appear veiled, exotic and mysterious. Many of us believe that behind their head coverings they are powerless, burdened by their religion and oppressed by a patriarchal society. Amal Awad, a woman of Arabic heritage living in Australia, visits the Middle East to interview women and address these clichés. She emphasises that religious or societal obligations, gender roles and expectations about appearance, which all limit the choices of an individual, are also experienced in the West. The women who Amal interviews are change-makers, helping their sisters to maintain hope and increase their inner strength. While Arabic women continue to struggle with their subjugation in a male-dominated society – with virginity tests, honour killings and the oppressive prevalence of the notion of shame – they realise that their oppression is similar to the challenge for women everywhere. Whatever is believed to be true about Arabic women, the voices of these women will disrupt your beliefs and deepen your understanding of how they really live. (Good Reading, June 2017)
The husband hunters / Anne de Courcy
Between 1870 and 1914, 454 American girls married titled Europeans. One hundred of these marriages were to British aristocrats and they helped to restore the fortunes of some of Britain’s crumbling stately homes and noble families. But by Anne De Courcy’s account, few of these marriages ended in fairy-tale happiness. The worlds of America and Britain were very different for a start. Women were as influential as their husbands in the States meanwhile life in the English country house revolved round male pursuits – hunting, shooting and politics. American women brought up in the height of luxury came brutally down to earth in draughty, bathroom-less stately homes. This undermined many transatlantic marriages from the outset, especially as few were built on mutual affection. De Courcy introduces us to families such as the Astors and the Vanderbilts who dominated American society in the late 19th century. That society was virtually impregnable and, however wealthy a family, if they weren’t on Mrs Astor’s list, they would be ostracised by everyone else. De Courcy is a spirited writer who has thoroughly researched her subject. But it’s hard not to feel revulsion on reading about American society’s Gilded Age when cigarettes were rolled in $100 bills engraved in gold with the host’s initials and a pet monkey was given its own room, valet and solid-silver service. (The Express, 6 June 2017)
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Hauser, Emily | For the winner |
| King, Stephen | Gwendy’s button box |
| Mealing, David | Soul of the world |
| Ryan, Anthony | The legion of flame |
| Smith-Spark, Anna | The court of broken knives |
| Stephenson, Neal | The rise and fall of D.O.D.O. |
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TRAVEL
| Cahill, Susan | The streets of Paris | TRV 914.4 CAHI |
| DK Eyewitness Travel | Italy | TRV 914.5049 EYEW |
| DK Eyewitness Travel | Sri Lanka | TRV 915.493 EYEW |
| Lonely Planet | Volunteer | TRV 910.202 LONE |
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New additions to eBooks at SMSA
EBOOKS
| Biography | Vance, J. D. | Hillbilly elegy |
| General novels | Darnielle, John | Universal harvester |
| General novels | Kureishi, Hanif | The nothing |
| General novels | Oliver, Jenny | The summerhouse by the sea |
| General novels | Silva, Daniel | House of spies |
| Historical fiction | Chatham, Victoria | Brides of Banff Springs |
| Historical fiction | Jackson, Douglas | Enemy of Rome |
| Mystery | Macy, Meg | Bearly departed |
| Mystery | Slaughter, Karin | The good daughter |
| Non fiction | English, Charlie | The book smugglers of Timbuktu |
| Non fiction | Grann, David | Killers of the flower moon |
| Romance | Linden, Caroline | The way to a Duke’s heart |
| Science fiction | Atwood, Margaret | The handmaid’s tale |
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AUDIOBOOKS
| Mystery | Penketh, Anne | Murder on the marsh |
| Mystery | Honda, Tetsuya | Soul cage |
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New Books — August 2017
The new books for August 2017 are now available to borrow, 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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