SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
New Book Highlights
ANIMAL STORIES
| Frezon, Peggy | Faithfully yours |
| Hines, Richard | No way but gentlenesse |
| Robinson, Lee | Lawyer for the cat |
| Rowley, Steven | Lily and the octopus |
Lily and the octopus / Steve Rowley
Lily is Ted’s best friend. She’s short and has big eyes and an infectious personality. Her Match.com profile would list her “likes” as playing Monopoly, watching old movies, and eating mint chocolate-chip ice cream. She’s also a 12-year-old dachshund with a brain tumour. Ted, who visualizes the mass growing inside Lily’s head as a sentient being with a personality all its own, refuses to acknowledge it for what it is and so refers to it as an octopus. As such, Ted faces this monster that is robbing him of his dearest companion, engaging it in a battle of wills that take on epic proportions. Rowley’s portrait of a sensitive, single man facing a pet owner’s worst nightmare brims with the honest emotions that come from unconditional love. This debut novel is about the death of a loved one, and readers who have faced similar situations will want to think before reaching for this gut-wrenching tale. Once readers commit however, the emotional toll is well worth it because Rowley has written an exceedingly authentic, keenly insightful, and heartbreakingly poignant tribute to the purity of love between a pet and its human. (Booklist, vol 112, number 16)
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AUSTRALIANA
| Straw, Leigh | The worst woman in Sydney | 364.374099441 STRA |
| Marsden, Anne | The making of the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institution | 374.99451 MARS |
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BIOGRAPHY
| Byrne, Paula | Kick |
| Flyn, Cal | Thicker than water |
| Glover, Richard | Flesh wounds |
| O’Neill, Helen | Daffodil |
| Tennant, Mary | I knew you’d have brown eyes |
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GENERAL FICTION
| Atkins, Dani | The story of us |
| Banner, Catherine | The house at the edge of night |
| Baram, Nir | Good people |
| Blackwood, Grant | Tom Clancy’s Under fire |
| Bradford, Barbara Taylor | The Cavendon luck |
| Brockmole, Jessica | At the edge of summer |
| Brody, Frances | Sixpence in her shoe |
| Collins, Michael | The death of all things seen |
| Cumming, Charles | A divided spy |
| Curry, Alexandra | The courtesan |
| Dawson, Jill | The crime writer |
| De Souza, Heba | Black British |
| Dyer, David Lloyd | The midnight watch |
| Enrigue, Alvaro | Sudden death |
| Fallada, Hans | Nightmare in Berlin |
| Furst, Alan | A hero in France |
| Han, Kang, | The vegetarian |
| Kennedy, A. L. | Serious sweet |
| Lawton, John | The unfortunate Englishma |
| Leonard, Peter A. | Unknown remains |
| Lustbader, Eric | Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne returns in The Bourne enigma |
| Martini, Steve | Blood flag |
| Martin-Lugand, Agne | Happy people read & drink coffee |
| McCall Smith, Alexander | My Italian bulldozer |
| O’Farrell, Maggie | This must be the place |
| O’Flanagan, Sheila | The missing wife |
| O’Flynn, Mark | The last days of Ava Langdon |
| Phillips, Caryl | The lost child |
| Preston, Douglas J. | The lost island |
| Proulx, Annie | Barkskins |
| Schaffner, Anna | The truth about Julia |
| Souza, Hebe de | Black British |
| Spargo-Ryan, Anna | The paper house |
| Stillman, Whit | Love & friendship |
| Swan, Karen | The Paris secret |
| Thor, Brad | Foreign agent |
| Tremain, Rose | The Gustav sonata |
| Walter, Natasha | A quiet life |
| Woodrell, Daniel | The death of sweet mister |
A hero in France / Alan Furst
It is 1941, and Paris is occupied by the Nazis. The Allied forces are engaged in nightly bombing raids over Germany and sometimes are required to land in France when their aircraft can’t make it back over the English Channel. Enter Mathieu and his small Resistance cell; their job is to find the downed airmen and help them escape back to England. Each success brings the group closer to possible discovery by the Germans, and when Mathieu teams up with the British, the perilous new missions further endanger his network, especially when an unfamiliar threat arises that may destroy them all. Furst is recognized among the greatest contemporary spy novelists, and his newest does not disappoint. While lacking the tight, cohesive plotting of his strongest works, this title retains the trademarks that bring fans back: realistic characters, meticulous historical knowledge, and superb storytelling. (Library Journal, vol 141, issue 9)
The vegetarian / Han Kang
In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice. Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she’s become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that’s why she won’t eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. The book has an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it. An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing. (Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2015)
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HISTORICAL FICTION
| Durham, David Anthony | The risen |
| Fletcher, Susan | Let me tell you about a man I knew |
| Gray, Ed | Left in the wind |
| Pargeter, Edith | A bloody field by Shrewsbury |
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MYSTERY
| Alem, Raja | The dove’s necklace | |
| Ashton, David | Fall from grace | |
| Atkins, Ace | Robert B. Parker’s slow burn | |
| Billingham, Mark | Die of shame | |
| Black, Cara | Murder on the Champ de Mars | |
| Blake, Sam | Little bones | |
| Carter, Andrea | Treacherous strand | |
| Casey, Donis | The drop edge of yonder | |
| Collins, Max Allan | Better dead | |
| Craven, Michael | The detective & the Chinese high-fin | |
| Douglas-Home, Mark | The malice of waves | |
| Elliott, Ron | Burn patterns | |
| Evanovich, Janet | The pursuit | |
| Graham, Heather | Haunted destiny | |
| Gregory, Susanna | A grave concern | |
| Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia | Body line | |
| Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia | Kill my darling | |
| Hart, Carolyn G. | Ghost wanted | |
| Horowitz, Anthony | Moriarty | |
| Hyzy, Julie | Grace sees red | |
| Jardine, Quintin | Private investigations | |
| King, Stephen | End of watch | |
| Jungstedt, Mari | A darker sky | |
| Marklund, Liza | The final word | |
| Marston, Edward | The stationmaster’s farewell | |
| Masini, Beatrice | The watercolourist | |
| Patrick, Renee | Design for dying | |
| Petit, Christopher | The butchers of Berlin | |
| Pronzini, Bill | Zigzag | |
| Reichs, Kathy | Bones of the lost | |
| Reilly, Martina | The proof | |
| Robb, Candace | The service of the dead | |
| Runcie, James | Sidney Chambers and the dangers of temptation | |
| Spencer, Sally | The dark lady | |
| Schepp, Emelie | Marked for life | |
| Stratmann, Linda | Death in Bayswater | |
| Street, Karen Lee | Edgar Allan Poe and the London monster | |
| Turner, Ann | Out of the ice | |
| Wechsler, Pamela | Mission Hill | |
| Williams, Sue | Dead men don’t order flake | |
Burn patterns / Ron Elliott
The aptly named Iris Foster, a lover of bright colours and a nurturer of hurt minds, is a psychologist and a profiler of arsonists. Dubbed “The Fire Lady” by the media, she has tried to distance herself from this role in the wake of a particularly traumatic and tragic fire. But when a local school is targeted, Iris is reluctantly roped in by the police to help track down the arsonist. She eventually discovers she has become a suspect herself, and her family life is starting to look thin and wobbly as well. Fremantle Press has, in recent years, produced some remarkable crime fiction, notably Peter Docker’s extraordinary novel Sweet One, and this new book by the gifted and experienced Ron Elliott is a worthy addition to the collection. Elliott is a scriptwriter and director, and his skills and experience show in the complexity of the characters, the fast pace of the plot, and the cinematic quality of the writing. (http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/review-burn-patterns-by-ron-elliott-20160627-gpq6qg.html)
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NON FICTION
| Borman, Tracy | The private lives of the Tudors |
| Brown, Colin | Operation big |
| Chopra, Sanjiv | The big 5 |
| Cunich, Rod | Understanding wills and estate planning |
| Kerr, Gordon | A short history of the Middle East |
| Mackay, Hugh | Beyond belief |
| Mukherjee, Siddhartha | The gene |
The gene: an intimate history / Siddhartha Mukherjee
In skillful prose, Mukherjee, an oncologist and the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies, relates the grand tale of how scientists have come to understand the role genes play in human development, behaviour, and physiology. He deftly relates the basic scientific facts about the way genes are believed to function, while making clear the aspects of genetics that remain unknown. Mukherjee also examines many of the philosophical and moral quandaries that have long swirled around the study of genetics, addressing such important topics as eugenics and stem cell research. Looking to the future, Mukherjee addresses prospects for medical advances in the treatment of diseases and in selecting the genetic composition of offspring, regularly pointing out the pressing ethical considerations. Throughout, he repeatedly poses the question, “What is ‘natural’?” declining to offer a single answer, in recognition that both context and change are essential. By relating familial information, Mukherjee grounds the abstract in the personal to add power and poignancy to his excellent narrative.
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ROMANCE
| Balogh, Mary | Then comes seduction |
| Brown, Sandra | Led astray |
| Kleypas, Lisa | Marrying Winterborne |
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Baxter, Stephen | The Medusa chronicles |
| Cronin, Justin | The city of mirrors |
| Cronin, Justin | The twelve |
| Irvine, Ian | The summon stone |
| Marshall, Alex | A blade of black steel |
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TRAVEL
| Carhart, Thaddeus | Finding Fontainebleau | 944.36082092 CARH |
| Stuttard, David | Greek mythology | 292.13 STUT |
Finding Fontainebleau / Thad Carhart
American casualness and exuberance meet French formality and grandeur in this prequel to the author’s The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. In the 1950s, Carhart’s family spent three years in the French town of Fontainebleau, where his father, a U. S. Air Force colonel, was stationed. His reminiscences recreate the culture clash between the family from expansive, affluent American suburbia and dense, culturally rich, but economically pinched post-war France, with its precise manners, rigid schooling, cosy shops, tiny cars, holy relics, heavenly food, squalid bathrooms, and riotous puppet shows. Carhart returns in adulthood to view the restoration of Château Fontainebleau, the 800-year-old residence of kings and emperors. He intermingles stories of French royalty, reportage on the conservator’s painstaking reconstruction of original decor, and effusive architectural appreciations. Carhart’s meandering, warmly evocative anecdotes register both the quirkiness of France’s traditions and the civilizing, humanizing influence they exert. (Publisher’s Weekly, May 17, 2016)
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New additions to eBooks at SMSA
AUDIOBOOKS
| Natiello, Eva Lesko | The memory box | General novels |
| Shelton, Paige | The cracked spine | Mystery |
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EBOOKS
| Ellison, J.T. | No one knows | General novels |
| MacDonald, Patricia | Don’t believe a word | General novels |
| Miranda, Megan | All the missing girls | General novels |
| Patrick, Phaedra | The curious charms of Arthur Pepper | General novels |
| Joubert, Irma | The girl from the train | Historical fiction |
| Hart, Liliana | Whiskey sour | Mystery |
| Kelly, Lynne | The memory code | Non fiction |
| Howey, Hugh | Sand | Science fiction/Fantasy |
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New Books — July 2016
The new books for July 2016 are now available to borrow, with new ebooks and audiobooks.
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