SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
New Book Highlights
ANIMAL STORIES
| Hart, Miranda | Peggy and me |
| Hayward, Lili | The cat of Yule Cottage |
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BIOGRAPHY
| Adut, Deng Thiak | Songs of a war boy |
| Colvin, Mark | Light and shadow |
| Cooper, Artemis | Elizabeth Jane Howard |
| Duncan, Susan | The house on the hill |
| Ellis, Bob | Bob Ellis |
| Faulkner, Sally | All for my children |
| Johns, Derek | Ariel |
| Kent, Geoffrey | Safari |
| Lawrence, T. E. | The mint |
| McInnes, William | Full bore |
| Robinson, Tony | No cunning plan |
| Spiegelman, Nadja | I’m supposed to protect you from all this |
| Windeyer, J. B. | Richard Windeyer |
| Winton, Tim | The boy behind the curtain |
The house on the hill / Susan Duncan
The third memoir from the author of bestsellers Salvation Creek and The House at Salvation Creek. In The House on the Hill, Susan Duncan reaches an age where there’s no point in sweating long-term ramifications. There aren’t any. This new understanding delivers an unexpected bonus – the emotional freedom and moral clarity to admit to hidden and often fiendish facts of ageing and, ultimately, the find ways to embrace them. This, in turn, unleashes an overwhelming desire to confront her intractable 95-year-old mother with the dreadful secrets of the past before it is too late, no matter the consequences. It is the not-knowing, she says, that does untold damage. Interwoven with stories from the land – building a sustainable eco-house on the mid-coast of New South Wales with her engineer husband, Bob, and grappling with white-eyed roans, dogs, bawling cattle markets, droughts and flooding rains, not to mention blunt-speaking locals – this is a book about a mother and daughter coming to terms, however uneasy, with the awful forces that shaped their relationship. As the inconstancies of age slow her down, Susan Duncan writes with honesty about discovery and forgiveness, and what it takes to rework shrinking boundaries into a new and rich life. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31843657-the-house-on-the-hill)
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CLASSICS
| Chekhov, Anton | Selected stories |
| Rhys, Jean | Wide Sargasso Sea |
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COOKING
| Harding, Lesley | Margaret Preston |
Margaret Preston / Lesley Harding
You don’t have to be a Margaret Preston aficionado or fan to appreciate this astute and delightful combination of potted biography, critique and cook book. Preston made it her aim to paint those objects close to everyday, ordinary life: hence the emphasis on still life – fruit, plates and teapots. It doesn’t mean that she thought of art as a formula or “recipe”, these are simply the things that drew her in and to which she gave a certain luminosity. The recipes, collected over her full, even unconventional life (female lovers, happy marriage, study and extensive travel), sit naturally alongside the paintings, wonderfully reproduced with photographs. (Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, 26-27 November 2016)
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CRAFT
| Alagille, Corinne | Brooches |
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GARDENING
| Mus, Jean | Private gardens of the Mediterranean |
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GENERAL FICTION
| Ajvide Lindqvist, John | I am behind you |
| Archer, Jeffrey | This was a man |
| Bai, Xiao | French concession |
| Baldacci, David | No man’s land |
| Barry, Sebastian | Days without end |
| Bennett, Brit | The mothers |
| Bragi, Steinar | The Ice Lands |
| Cole, Martina | Betrayal |
| Cussler, Clive | Odessa Sea |
| Drabble, Margaret | The dark flood rises |
| Duffy, Stella | London lies beneath |
| Durrant, Sabine | Lie with me |
| Fishman, Zoe | Inheriting Edith |
| Francis, David | Wedding bush road |
| Green, John M. | The Tao deception |
| Higgins, Fiona | Fearless |
| Hilderbrand, Elin | Winter storms |
| Hoffman, Alice | Faithful |
| Kelly, Cathy | Secrets of a happy marriage |
| Keneally, Thomas | Crimes of the father |
| LeBor, Adam | The Reykjavik assignment |
| Livesey, Margot | Mercury |
| MacLeod, Bracken | Stranded |
| Marcuson, Steven | The Bunting quest |
| McBride, Eimear | The lesser bohemians |
| McDonald, Fleur | Sapphire falls |
| McIntosh, Fiona | The chocolate tin |
| McNab, Andy | Cold blood |
| Miscellaneous | The best Australian stories 2016 |
| Montefiore, Santa | Songs of love and war |
| Morrissey, Di | A distant journey |
| Moyes, Jojo | Paris for one and other stories |
| Mukherjee, Robin | Hillstation |
| Picoult, Jodi | Small great things |
| Reilly, Matthew | The four legendary kingdoms |
| Rose, Heather | The museum of modern love |
| Smith, Zadie | Swing time |
| Steel, Danielle | The award |
| Steil, Jennifer | The ambassador’s wife |
| Stridsberg, Sara | The gravity of love |
| Van der Kwast, Ernest | The ice-cream makers |
| Vickers, Salley | Cousins |
| Watt, Peter | While the moon burns |
Wedding bush road / David Francis
Los Angeles-based Francis spends part of his time in his native Australia, and his latest work sends protagonist Daniel Rawson there to great effect. When his mother calls to say that she is dying, Daniel scurries to join her, leaving behind a disgruntled girlfriend with whom he’s struggling to connect. You can see why; it’s evident from the moment he arrives that Daniel comes from a classically dysfunctional family, with his tough-old-bird mother having long ago run his philandering father off the horse farm that belonged to him. Now, the mother insists on giving notice to Sharen, a glamorous if slightly worn tenant with whom the father is involved, and she retaliates by setting a fire that eats up some family valuables. Hapless Daniel stumbles through this dislocated world as best he can, while Sharen’s son, Reggie, emerges as the book’s most intriguing character. In prose as severely beautiful as the land depicted, Francis takes us into the bleeding heart of family. (Library Journal, vol 141, issue 19)
Swing time / Zadie Smith
The remarkable Smith again does what she does best, packing a personal story into a larger understanding of how we humans form tribes (a word used throughout). In London, two mixed-race girls meet in dance class, and while the narrator passionately loves movement, carefully studying steps in old-time movies, it’s glamorous, dominant, socially advanced Tracey who wins medals and advances in her training. Even as their relationship veers between close and cold, our heroine struggles with a feminist, socially conscious Jamaica-born mother who spouts history lessons about social oppression and is disappointed when her daughter chooses not to stretch herself, ending up at a second-rate university and finally as a personal assistant to international pop sensation Aimee. Aimee is currently pushing a vainglorious project to bring a school to an African village, leaving plenty of room for Smith’s ever nuanced play between and within racial and class structures. The narrative moves deftly and absorbingly between its increasingly tense coming-of-age story and the adult life of the sympathetic if naïve and sometimes troubling narrator, whose betrayal of Aimee echoes Tracey’s betrayal of her. A rich and sensitive drama highly recommended for all readers. (Library Journal, vol 141, issue 15)
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HISTORICAL FICTION
| Benson, Jacquelyn | The smoke hunter |
| Goodwin, Daisy | Victoria |
| Jackson, Douglas | Saviour of Rome |
| Jecks, Michael | Blood on the sand |
The smoke hunter / Jacquelyn Benson
Romance readers will best appreciate Benson’s first novel, an adventure thriller set in 1898. Archivist Ellie Mallory loses her job at London’s Public Records Office after she’s arrested for her suffragette activities. Before Ellie leaves her office, she pockets a hollowed-out psalter that contains a medallion bearing the image of a grinning idol as well as a map purporting to provide the location of El Dorado. Her appropriation of the psalter sets two villains on her trail. Her pursuers follow Ellie to Belize City, where she’s rescued by the rakish Adam Bates, with whom she teams to search for the map’s secrets. Hitherto an independent heroine, she now becomes a damsel in distress. Amid perils straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, Ellie can’t help noticing Adam’s physical attributes (“The hard, wet planes of his body were only a breath away from her own, radiating heat and solid, barely concealed strength”). (Publishers Weekly, vol 263, issue 30)
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MYSTERY
| Arlidge, M. J. | Hide and seek |
| Burnet, Graeme Macrae | The disappearance of Adele Bedeau by Raymond Brunet |
| Buzzelli, Elizabeth Kane, | A most curious murder |
| Carl, JoAnna | The chocolate falcon fraud |
| Connelly, Michael | The wrong side of goodbye |
| Cornwell, Patricia | Chaos |
| De Jager, Anja | A cold case in Amsterdam Central |
| Dickinson, David | Death comes to the Ballets Russes |
| Disher, Garry | Signal loss |
| Evanovich, Janet | Turbo twenty-three |
| Ewan, Chris | The good thief’s guide to Venice |
| Fowler, Christopher | Bryant & May and the bleeding heart |
| Fowler, Christopher | Bryant & May and the burning man |
| Griffiths, Elly | The blood card |
| Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia | Star fall |
| Holt, Anne | Beyond the truth |
| Jackson, Corrie | Breaking dead |
| Jennings, Maureen | Dead ground in between |
| Kallentoft, Mons | Souls of air |
| La Plante, Lynda | Hidden killers |
| MacNeal, Susan Elia | The queen’s accomplice |
| Minier, Bernard | Don’t turn out the lights |
| Monk, Roger | The bank manager |
| Morrell, David | Ruler of the night |
| Owen, L. J. M. | Mayan mendacity |
| Patterson, James | Cross the line |
| Raabe, Marc | Cut |
| Rankin, Ian | Rather be the devil |
| Rankin, Ian | The travelling companion |
| Reichs, Kathy | The bone collection |
| Rose, Karen | Every dark corner |
| Sandford, John | Escape clause |
| Stratmann, Linda | The poisonous seed |
| Turner, Lisa | Devil sent the rain |
| Whish-Wilson, David | Old scores |
Don’t turn out the lights / Bernard Minier
French author Minier once again displays a rare gift for raising goose bumps in his intricate third thriller featuring Commandant Martin Servaz. The Toulouse cop is on leave, undergoing treatment for depression, six months after the sadistic killer he was hunting sent him the heart of a woman Martin was involved with. He gets back on the job after receiving another package, which contains an electronic hotel key and an unsigned invitation to a meeting in the room it opens. When Martin visits the Grand Hôtel Thomas Wilson, he learns that room 117 was the scene of an artist’s bloody suicide a year earlier. Meanwhile, radio show host Christine Steinmeyer receives an unsigned note from someone threatening to take her life on Christmas Eve. Unsuccessful in her efforts to identify the disturbing letter’s author, she soon finds herself the victim of a sadistic plot to drive her mad. Minier sustains a high degree of tension throughout, while making his characters’ reactions to extreme stress plausible. (Publisher’s Weekly, vol 263, issue 39)
Devil sent the rain / Lisa Turner
29-year-old Caroline Lee, an attorney from a prominent Mississippi family is shot dead in her 1968 Camaro Z28. Homicide detective Billy Able of the Memphis PD his partner, Frankie Malone, are especially motivated to catch Caroline’s killer—Frankie because she’s ambitious and wants a promotion, and Billy because he’s loved Caroline since they were teenagers. Caroline ended her engagement to domineering neurosurgeon Raj Sharma five weeks earlier, making Raj a prime suspect, but if Caroline was single, why was she wearing a wedding dress when she died? A missing cousin, a greedy brother, and shady dealings at the Lee family law firm further complicate the case. The old South looms large over this sultry, melodramatic tale. A shifting narrative, a keen sense of place, and a steady stream of suspects and red herrings propel the mystery to a satisfying conclusion. (Publishers Weekly, vol 263, issue 30)
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NON FICTION
| Ackroyd, Peter | The history of England | 941.06 ACKR |
| Carroll, Sean M. | The big picture | 576.83 CARR |
| Cole, Teju | Known and strange things | 824 COLE |
| Garfield, Simon | Timekeepers | 529 GARF |
| Ham, Paul | Passchendaele | 940.431 HAM |
| Humphries, Barry | Dame Edna’s Ednapaedia | AUS 994.00207 HUMP |
| Hunt, David | True girt | AUS 994 HUNT |
| Jones, P. V. | Quid pro quo | 422 JONE |
| Lonely Planet | Lonely Planet’s best in travel 2017 | TRV 910.2 LONE |
| McKenna, Mark | From the edge | 994.02 McKE |
| Miller, Laura | Literary wonderlands | 809 MILL |
| Morton, James | Bent | AUS 364 MORT |
| Rappaport, Helen | Caught in the revolution | 355.00947210904 RAPP |
| Rutherford, Adam | A brief history of everyone who ever lived | 599.938 RUTH |
| Tedeschi, Mark | Murder at Myall Creek | AUS 305.89915 TEDE |
| Visotzky, Burton L. | Aphrodite and the rabbis | 296.3 VISO |
| Younge, Gary | Another day in the death of America | 363 YOUN |
True girt / David Hunt
First there was Girt. Now comes … True Girt. In this side-splitting sequel to his best-selling history, David Hunt transports us to the Australian frontier. This was the Wild South, home to hardy pioneers, gun-slinging bushrangers, directionally challenged explorers, nervous Indigenous people, Caroline Chisholm and sheep. Lots of sheep. True Girt introduces Thomas Davey, the hard-drinking Tasmanian governor who invented the Blow My Skull cocktail, and Captain Moonlite, Australia’s most notorious LGBTI bushranger. Meet William Nicholson, the Melbourne hipster who gave Australia the steam-powered coffee roaster and the world the secret ballot. And say hello to Harry, the first camel used in Australian exploration, who shot dead his owner, the adventurer John Horrocks. Learn how Truganini’s death inspired the Martian invasion of Earth. Discover the role of Hall and Oates in the Myall Creek Massacre. And be reminded why you should never ever smoke with the Wild Colonial Boy and Mad Dan Morgan. If Manning Clark and Bill Bryson were left on a desert island with only one pen, they would write True Girt. (https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/true-girt)
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POETRY
| Goldsworthy, Peter | The rise of the machines |
| Lebkowicz, Lesley | The Petrov poems |
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ROMANCE
| Balogh, Mary | Someone to love |
| Douglas, Michelle | An unlikely bride for the billionaire |
| Hughes, Anita | Christmas in Paris |
| Mallory, Sarah | Regency |
| Palmer, Diana | Denim and lace |
| Ruttan, Amy | Tempting Nashville’s celebrity doc |
Christmas in Paris / Anita Hughes
When it comes to life, Isabel Lawson is more than clueless. A budding star in the finance field, she can’t believe her soon-to-be-husband Neil has taken over his family’s farm, with the expectation Isabel will be milking the cows alongside him. She calls off the wedding, and goes on their planned Paris honeymoon—alone. Of course, it’s Christmastime, which leaves Isabel feeling isolated and confused in a foreign city. It’s when she locks herself out of her room at the Hotel Crillon that she meets her neighbour Alec, another lonely soul, who helps Isabel, after which everything changes. Isabel now has a partner with whom she can experience the magic of the city, especially in all its delicious food, during the holidays. In the process, Isabel uncovers plenty about herself, her life, and the love she has been after all along. Anita Hughes does it again in her latest novel: a love affair with Paris during the most magical time of year, starring a likable, slightly naive heroine everyone is rooting for. — Chesanek, Carissa (Reviewed 9/1/2016) (Booklist, vol 113, number 1)
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Aaronovitch, Ben | The hanging tree |
| Anderson, Kevin J. | Eternity’s mind |
| Aryan, Stephen | Chaosmage |
| Polansky, Daniel | A city dreaming |
| Pratchett, Terry | The long utopia |
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New additions to eBooks at SMSA
EBOOKS
| Biography | Llewellyn, Kate | A fig at the gate |
| General novels | Birch, Carol | Orphans of the carnival |
| General novels | Fleming, Leah | The postcard |
| General novels | Mbue, Imbolo | Behold the dreamers |
| Historical novels | Jackson, Douglas | Avenger of Rome |
| Historical novels | Smith, Wilbur | Pharaoh |
| Mystery | Storey, Erik | Nothing short of dying |
| Romance | Chase, Samantha | Mistletoe Between Friends |
| Romance | Roberts, Caroline | The cosy Christmas Teashop |
| Science fiction & fantasy | Malfi, Ronald | The night parade |
A fig at the gate / Kate Llewellyn
In A Fig at the Gate, author Kate Llewellyn, now in her seventies, embraces a new phase in her life, asking the question, ‘How does one live well?’ Following the joyful crafting of her gardens in the Blue Mountains (The Waterlily) and north of Wollongong (Playing with Water), Kate creates a new garden near the sea in Adelaide, planting olives, plums, limes and blood oranges, learning how to keep poultry, setting a duck on eggs. Delight and enrichment come with the learning of new skills, being close to family and old friends, long companionable beach walks, rediscovering old recipes, food and wine. Wise and joyful, accepting what she cannot change while relishing what she has, Kate shares the beauties and frailties of the human condition and shows us what the gifts of ageing can bring. (https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/biography-autobiography/A-Fig-at-the-Gate-Kate-Llewellyn-9781760110888)
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AUDIOBOOKS
| General novels | Schine, Cathleen | They may not mean to but they do |
| Mystery | Babson, Marion | The company of cats |
The company of cats / Marion Babson
Annabel Hinchly-Smythe, who makes a living selling hot items to gossip columns, is worrying about money during a particularly dry social season when a chance encounter with wealthy computer magnate Arthur Arbuthnot leads to the promise of a lucrative job. Arbuthnot, mistaking Annabel’s profession, wants her to redecorate his dreary flat, and Annabel, though more accustomed to collecting tidbits of scandal than swatches of fabric, decides to give it a go. Meeting the ghastly assortment of staff and family surrounding Arbuthnot, Annabel observes that only the tycoon’s cat, Sally, seems genuinely fond of him. When Arbuthnot meets an apparently accidental death, it looks as if Annabel will have to go back to the columns. But then the tycoon’s officious secretary attempts to lure Sally to her death, and Annabel sneaks the feline safely off the premises and is drawn into dastardly doings. After Arbuthnot’s will truly puts the pigeon among the cats–by naming Sally as his chief heir–Annabel must sniff out the truth behind his death in order to keep Sally from using up her nine lives. The humor is playful rather than clawed in this slinky feline extravaganza from veteran author Babson. (http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-312-19924-1)
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New Books — December 2016
1The new books for December 2016 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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