SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)New Books
AUSTRALIANA
| Boccabella, Zoe | Joe’s fruit shop & milk bar | AUS 305.851094 BOCC |
| Bryant, Nick | The rise and fall of Australia | AUS 994.072 BRYA |
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BIOGRAPHY
| Anand, Anita | Sophia |
| Celenza, Christopher S. | Machiavelli |
| Wyndham, Diana | Norman Haire and the study of sex |
| Yousef, Mosab Hassan | Son of Hamas |
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COOKING
None this month
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CRAFT
| Hedengren, Sania | Yarn, yarn, yarn |
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GENERAL NOVELS
| Addison, Corban | The tears of dark water |
| Alliott, Catherine | Wish you were here |
| Archer, Jeffrey | Mightier than the sword |
| Bausch, Richard | Before, during, after |
| Birmingham, John | Resistance |
| Bruschini, Vito | The prince |
| Butler, Robert Olen | The hot country |
| Caldwell, Ian | The fifth gospel |
| Chang, Janie | Three souls |
| Chanter, Catherine | The well |
| Coetzee, J. M. | Disgrace |
| Coetzee, J. M. | Waiting for the barbarians |
| Connell, John | The ghost estate |
| Cussler, Clive | The assassin |
| De Krester, Michelle | Springtime |
| Edgecombe, James | The art of Kozu |
| Fforde, Katie | A vintage wedding |
| Finn, Melanie | Shame |
| Fishman, Boris | A replacement life |
| Gislason, Kari | The ash burner |
| Grierson, Bruce | What makes olga run? |
| Harrower, Elizabeth | In certain circles |
| Hartnett, Sonya | Golden boys |
| Hasluck, Nicholas | The country without music |
| Jaaskelainen, Pasi Ilmari | The Rabbit Back Literature Society |
| Krasznahorkai, Laszlo | Satantango |
| Laguna, Sofie | The eye of the sheep |
| Larsen, Reif | I am Radar |
| Lee, Christopher David | Seasons of war |
| Lewis, Susan | Too close to home |
| Lohrey, Amanda | A short history of Richard Kline |
| MacDonald, Ann-Marie | Adult onset |
| McCleen, Grace | The offering |
| Miller, A. D. | The faithful couple |
| Moran, Caitlin | How to build a girl |
| Obioma, Chigozie John | The fishermen |
| O’Connor, Mary-Anne | Gallipoli street |
| Odell, Jonathan | Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League |
| Rimington, Stella | Close Call |
| Robinson, Alice | Anchor Point |
| Roth, Philip | Portnoy’s complaint |
| Sarginson, Saskia | The other me |
| Scanlan, Patricia | A time for friends |
| Schumacher, Julie | Dear committee members |
| Sherborne, Craig | Tree palace |
| Simpson, Inga | Nest |
| St. Aubyn, Edward | Some hope |
| Steinhauer, Olen | All the old knives |
| Trapido, Barbara | Brother of the more famous Jack |
| Tyler, Anne | A spool of blue thread |
| Venter, Eben | Wolf, wolf |
 | Hartnett, Sonya Golden Boys
Sonya Hartnett is an author who has written both about young adults as well as writing for them. This book is set in a suburb not too unlike those that we grew up in – kids on bikes, pinball games, etc. It centres around two families – the Kileys (long time residents, their six children bursting the seams of their modest three-bedroom home – and the Jensons, the glamorous newcomers, who seem “burnished right to the bone”. The two families are different in many ways, but it is Rex Jenson, the father, whose ways and means are not what they originally seem. Spanning only a scant few weeks, Golden Boys flows as easily as a bike ride on a summer afternoon. But within its effortless unfolding are sombre themes: of the neighbourhood’s acceptance of domestic violence, and its effects on children; of the way class and money can enable and protect a predator; and how resilient, vulnerable, opportunistic and courageous children can be.
Suggested tags: Australia, children, family, funny, siblings, tragic |
 | Robinson, Alice Anchor point
Anchor Point is the debut novel of Alice Robinson. Robinson is a creative writing teacher and this is reflected in her lyrical and seamless writing. The book is set in the rural Australia and narrated by ten year old Lauren when we first meet her in 1978. Her father, Bruce, works on the land while her mother, Kath, attempts to keep house. Laura’s parents constantly fight and one day, after an argument of epic proportions, Kath goes missing. A flash flood has occurred and Bruce goes searching for her, as Kath enjoyed potting and would often go down to the creek to look for clay. Laura discovers that her mother had left a note but accidentally burns it. She impulsively decides not to tell her father about the note, a decision that will haunt her for decades. After her mother’s disappearance, Laura must take over running the house and taking care of her younger sister. Readers on Goodreads write that Anchor Point had “beautiful poetic flow and was an absolute pleasure to read,” and that it is a “stunning Australian novel about family secrets, sibling rivalry, love and what it means to be home.”
Read more from: http://www.readings.com.au/review/anchor-point-by-alice-robinson Suggested tags: Australia, children, family, secrets |
 | Tyler, Anne A Spool of Blue Thread
Anne Tyler has written many books on family and marriage (Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Pulitzer Prize Finalist) and this book carries on these themes. The Whitshank family appear to have a few skeletons in their closet, a family history that has shaped the way their family grew, and as a result of this, are slightly dysfunctional! Abbey and Red Whitshank have always passed on to their children how they met and married. But behind the romance of it all, there is another story – how Red’s parents didn’t have the romantic meeting that they had thought. There are secrets between the two sons, Denny and Stem, that even others in the family don’t know. The family’s commitment to and obligations to care for their aging parents bring them all back together. Here, as elsewhere, [in Anne Tyler’s novels] we are pointed in one direction only to find the narrative sidling off in another. The story of family becomes more a story of the multiple versions of reality past and present that its members tell themselves to keep the show on the road.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/04/a-spool-of-blue-thread-anne-tyler-review Suggested tags: American fiction, domestic fiction, family, grief, siblings
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HISTORICAL NOVELS
| Cameron, Christian | Tyrant |
| Cameron, Christian | Funeral games |
| Hight, Jack | Holy war |
| S. J. Garland | Pretender at the gate |
| Tampke, Ilka | Skin |
MYSTERY
| Adler-Olsen, Jussi | The keeper of lost causes |
| Adler-Olsen, Jussi | Buried |
| Box, C. J. | Endangered |
| Camilleri, Andrea | The Brewer of Preston |
| Carlsson, Christoffer | The invisible man from Salem |
| Carter, Alan | Bad seed |
| Cleeves, Ann | The crow trap |
| Connolly, John | A song of shadows |
| Corris, Peter | Gun control |
| Craig, James | Sins of the fathers |
| Doherty, P. C. | Candle flame |
| Eastland, Sam | The beast in the red forest |
| Fitzek, Sebastian | The child |
| Gardiner, Meg | Ransom River |
| Gott, Robert | The Port Fairy murders |
| Gunn, Alastair | My bloody valentine |
| Hall, Tarquin | The case of the man who died laughing |
| Harris, C. S. | Who buries the dead |
| Hoffman, Patrick | The white van |
| Jungstedt, Mari | Unknown |
| Jungstedt, Mari | The dangerous game |
| Kornegay, Jamie | Soil |
| Lackberg, Camilla | The scent of almonds & other stories |
| Lahlum, Hans Olav | The human flies |
| Lapidus, Jens | Life deluxe |
| Laukkanen, Owen | Kill fee |
| Lemaitre, Pierre | Camille |
| Leon, Donna | Falling in love |
| MacNeal, Susan Elia | His Majesty’s Hope |
| Malliet, G. M. | A Demon Summer |
| Nesbo, Jo | Blood on snow |
| Nykanen, Harri | Behind God’s back |
| Patterson, James | 14th deadly sin |
| Pattison, Eliot | Prayer of the dragon |
| Pattison, Eliot | The lord of death |
| Pelfrey, Matt | John Ball’s In the heat of the night |
| Taylor, Sara | The shore |
| Todd, Charles | A fine summer’s day |
| Vargas, Fred | Dog will have his day |
| Walsh, M. O. | My sunshine away |
| Wright, June | Duck season death |
 | Gott, Robert The Port Fairy Murders
This is a sequel to The Holiday Murders, a political and historical crime novel set in 1943, which our library also holds. You don’t have to have read the first book because Gott opens with a useful two‑page précis of its plot. But you’ll probably want to – the Age claims The Holiday Murders is “as close to perfect as a mystery can be.” Following on in 1944 in the Victorian fishing town of Port Fairy, The Port Fairy Murders commences with a bang: the villain “hated Jews, women, queers, coppers, rich people, and his father” – and keeps up the rollicking pace as the newly formed Victorian Police Homicide Squad investigates a double murder in the context of Australian fascist groups and the Catholic-Protestant antagonism of the times. The engaging homicide team of a young policeman and policewoman create extra sympathy and interest. Goodreads reviews average 4 stars and some give it 5: “I enjoy books that keep me guessing and this did just that.” One reviewer became so “enchanted” and “involved” she begged the author to hurry up with the next in the series. “Anyone who enjoys curling up in front of the television to watch Midsomer Murders, Inspector Morse or Phryne Fisher” – says Fran Metcalf of the Courier Mail – “will relish Gott’s work.” Read more: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23682181-the-port-fairy-murders Suggested tags: investigation, murder, mystery, Victoria |
 | Pattison, Eliot The Lord of death
The Lord of Death is the sixth in Pattison’s mystery series that began with The Skull Mantra. Shan Tao Yun is an exiled Chinese national and former Beijing investigator on parole from the Tibetan gulag to which he has been consigned. The Lord of Death focuses on the plight of the Tibetan people under brutal Chinese occupation. Shan is ferrying a corpse on muleback over the slopes of Chomolungma—Everest—when a government bus filled with imprisoned illegal monks overturns Then Shan hears gunfire. Two women in an approaching sedan have been killed. One is the Chinese minister of tourism; the other, a blond Westerner, organizes climbing expeditions. Though she dies in his arms, Shan is later met with denials that this foreigner is dead. Shan must find the murderer, for his recompense will be the life and sanity of his son, Ko, imprisoned in a Chinese “yeti factory” where men are routinely driven mad. The Lord of Death averages a 4 star rating on Goodreads, with readers saying “The book has everything I look for in a mystery – great characterization, solid investigation, a complex plot, and a conclusion where all the pieces fit together.” Readers also commend Pattison on his portrayal of Tibetan culture.
Read more: http://eliotpattison.com Suggested tags: Tibet, China, mystery, murder |
 | Vargas, Fred Dog will have his day
How do you solve a murder without a body? Keeping watch under the windows of the Paris flat belonging to a politician’s nephew, ex-special investigator Louis Kehlweiler catches sight of something odd on the pavement. A tiny piece of bone. Human bone, in fact. When Kehweiler takes his find to the nearest police station, he faces ridicule. Obsessed by the fragment, he follows the trail to the tiny Breton fishing villiage of Port-Nicolas. But when he recruits ‘evangelists’ Marc and Mathias to help, they find themselves facing even bigger game. (Cover) Vargas and her translator Siân Reynolds have won the CWA International Dagger an impressive four times since the prize was inaugurated in 2006, including for the series debut, The Three Evangelists (2006). If Dog Will Have His Day is anything to go by, it’s easy to see why.
Read more: https://angelasavage.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/review-dog-will-have-his-day/ Suggested tags: France, Paris, murder, crime, detectives |
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NON FICTION
| Beresford, Quentin | The rise and fall of Gunns Ltd | 338.76349 BERE |
| Dunlop, Tessa | The Bletchley girls | 940.548641 DUNL |
| Holmes, Richard | Falling upwards | 797.51 HOLM |
| Spencer, Adam | Adam Spencer’s book of numbers | 513.2 SPEN |
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POETRY
None this month
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ROMANCE
| Douglas, Michelle | The millionaire and the maid |
| Hunter, Kelly | The spy who tamed me |
| Mackay, Sue | The family she needs |
| Winters, Rebecca | The renegade billionaire |
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Abercrombie, Joe | Red country |
| Klavan, Andrew | Werewolf cop |
| Lackey, Mercedes | Arrow’s flight |
| Manieri, Evie, | Fortune’s blight |
| McAuley, Paul J | Something coming through |
| Modesitt, L. E. | Arms-commander |
| Modesitt, L. E. | Cyador’s heirs |
| Polansky, Daniel | Those above |
| Tepper, Sheri S. | Fish tails |
| Williams, Jen | The iron ghost |
| Various authors | Time trips |
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TRAVEL
| Brett, Lily | Only in New York | TRV 974.71 BRET |
| Carhart, Thaddeus | The piano shop on the Left Bank | TRV 786.21944361 CARH |
 | Carhart, Thad The piano shop on the left bank In this engaging memoir, an American writer living in Paris recounts his experiences in a piano shop tucked into an out-of-the way street on the rive gauche. The atelier master of the shop is Luc, who proves an indispensable guide to the history and art of the piano. Luc’s love of pianos is so infectious that Carhart’s own childhood passion for the instrument is rekindled, He reflects on piano teachers, those of his childhood as well as several renowned teachers of today. Carhat starts to take lessons again and buys a piano for his small apartment. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank intertwines a story of musical friendship with the history of pianos. Its presentation of a beguiling portrait of Paris makes the reader feel like they are truly there. Reviews on Goodreads enjoy the book for its “vivid character descriptions and joyous reverence for music .”
Read more: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-375-50304-7 Suggested tags: memoir, music, Paris, pianos, travel |
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New additions to eBooks at SMSA
EBOOKS
| Allen Eskens | The Life We Bury | Mystery |
| Carly Phillips | Dare to Desire | Romance |
| Dani Pettrey | Sabotaged | Romance |
| Dani Pettrey | Shattered | Romance |
| Fern Michaels | Eyes Only | Romance |
| Henning Mankell | Faceless Killers | Mystery |
| Henning Mankell | The Fifth Woman | Mystery |
| Henning Mankell | The White Lioness | Mystery |
| J. A. Jance | Injustice for All | Mystery |
| J.A. Jance | Moving Target | Mystery |
| Jasinda Wilder | Alpha | Romance |
| Joel C. Rosenberg | The Third Target | General novels |
| Kat Martin | Against the Sky | Romance |
| Kerry Greenwood | The Castlemaine Murders | Mystery |
| Kerry Greenwood | Murder on a Midsummer Night | Mystery |
| Maya Banks | Colters’ Daughter | Romance |
| Maya Banks | In His Keeping | Romance |
| Maya Banks | Keep Me Safe | Romance |
| Shelly Laurenston | The Unleashing | Romance |
| Sylvia Day | Blood and Roses | Short Stories, Romance |
| Tess Gerritsen | The Apprentice | Mystery |
| Tess Gerritsen | Body Double | Mystery |
| Tess Gerritsen | Keeper Of The Bride | Romance |
| Tess Gerritsen | The Mephisto Club | Mystery |
| Tess Gerritsen | The Sinner | Mystery |
AUDIOBOOKS
None this month
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New Books for May 2015
The new books for May 2015 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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