SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
New Book Highlights
BIOGRAPHY
| Brooks, David | The grass library |
| Chang, Jung | Big sister, little sister, red sister |
| Hoare, Judith | The woman who cracked the anxiety code |
| Lownie, Andrew | The Mountbattens |
| Rieden, Juliet | The writing on the wall |
| Simons, Margaret | Penny Wong |
The woman who cracked the anxiety code / Judith Hoare
Australian doctor Claire Weekes found worldwide fame with her bestselling books on ‘nervous illness’ in the 1960s and 1970s—but despite gratitude from thousands of sufferers, she is almost forgotten today. This revelatory biography should change that. Journalist Judith Hoare has comprehensively captured the unconventional life of this brilliant woman who was lauded for her evolutionary studies in zoology before moving into neurology. Then, in middle age, she became a much-loved physician, fond of bringing her patients home to roam alongside her long-suffering family. She tried out other careers as well—even a disastrously timed attempt at being a travel agent on the eve of WWII—but it was her early broken romance with a dashing hero of the trenches that sparked the cure for her own nervous illness. This led her to create her revolutionary theory of first and second fears—first fear being the natural fight or flight response to a frightening situation, second fear being fear of this fear. The indefatigable Dr Weekes built her work into an international empire and, despite some appalling business decisions due to an admirable if often-misguided trust in her patients, her books and recordings are still available today. After reading this biography, any sufferer of anxiety or depression will be keen to track them down. (Books and Publishing, 25 July 2019)
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COOKING
| Bennison, Vicky | Pasta grannies |
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GENERAL FICTION
| Adams, Jack | Asylum |
| Baldacci, David | A minute to midnight |
| Barnes, Julian | Levels of life |
| Buchan, Elizabeth | The museum of broken promises |
| Chamberlain, Mary | The hidden |
| Chiaverini, Jennifer | The Christmas boutique |
| Coates, Ta-Nehisi | The water dancer |
| Donoghue, Emma | Akin |
| Furnivall, Kate | The guardian of lies |
| Goodrich, Heddi | Lost in the Spanish Quarter |
| Grisham, John | The guardians |
| Higashino, Keigo | The miracles of the Namiya General Store |
| Houellebecq, Michel | Serotonin |
| Hurley, Graham | Curtain call |
| Kassab, Yumna | The house of Youssef |
| Keneally, Thomas | Two old men dying |
| Krien, Anna | Act of grace |
| Lawler, Liz | I’ll find you |
| Le Carre, John | Agent running in the field |
| Morris, Heather | Cilka’s journey |
| Moyes, Jojo | The giver of stars |
| Nunn, Judy | Khaki town |
| Paris, B. A. | The understudy |
| Parks, Adele | Lies lies lies |
| Parrett, Favel | There was still love |
| Patchett, Ann | The Dutch house |
| Perlman, Elliot | Maybe the horse will talk |
| Rose, Heather | Bruny |
| Russo, Richard | Chances are… |
| Shapiro, Deborah | The summer demands |
| Slee, Tim | Taking Tom Murray home |
| Smith, Zadie | Grand union |
| Strout, Elizabeth | Olive, again |
| Thomas, Scott | Violet |
| Thynne, Jane | Patrimony |
| Tsushima, Yoko | Territory of light |
| Wood, Charlotte | The weekend |
The godmother / Hannelore Cayre
Patience Portefeux, the widowed 53-year-old narrator of French author Cayre’s exuberant English-language debut, lives hand-to-mouth, barely covering her two daughters’ university fees and her aged mother’s care working as a translator for the Paris drug squad. By chance, Patience comes into contact with the mother of a drug trafficker and, with information from police wiretaps of the trafficker’s movements, is able to secure a large quantity of hash. Under the alias the Godmother, she deals herself into financial security, going so far as to launder the money in Switzerland with the purchase of pink diamonds she hides in lipstick tubes. Maybe crime doesn’t pay, but the guile and guts—and humor—with which Patience approaches this extreme solution to her desperate situation, right under the noses of law enforcement, is admirable, as are her survival instincts. Readers will be anxious about the fate of the forthright, sympathetic Patience up to the final page. It’s no surprise that this novel won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, France’s most prestigious award for crime fiction. (Publishers Weekly, 13 June 2019)
The water dancer / Ta-Nehisi Coates
Coates makes his ambitious fiction debut with this wonderful novel that follows Hiram Walker, a boy with an extraordinary memory. Born on a Virginia plantation, he realizes at five that he has a photographic recall—except where it concerns his mother, Rose, who was sold and whom he can only reconstruct through what others tell him. Born to Rose and Howell Walker, master and owner of Lockless, the land Hiram works, Hiram is called up at age 12 to the house to serve Maynard, his half-brother. When the novel opens, Hiram is 19, and he and Maynard are on their way back to Lockless when the bridge they’re traveling over collapses. Deep in the river, Hiram is barraged with visions of his ancestors, and finally a woman water-dancing, whom he recognizes as his mother. After he wakes up, mysteriously saved even as Maynard dies, Hiram yearns for a life beyond “the unending night of slavery.” But when his plans to escape with Sophia, the woman he loves, are dashed by betrayal and violence, Hiram is inducted into the Underground, the secret network of agents working to liberate slaves. Valued for his literacy and for the magical skill the Underground believes he possesses, Hiram comes to learn that the fight for freedom comes with its own sacrifices and restrictions. In prose that sings and imagination that soars, Coates further cements himself as one of this generation’s most important writers, tackling one of America’s oldest and darkest periods with grace and inventiveness. This is bold, dazzling, and not to be missed. (Publishers Weekly, 11 June 2019)
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GRAPHIC NOVELS
| Modan, Rutu | The property |
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HISTORICAL FICTION
| Fox, Hester | The widow of Pale Harbour |
| Velton, Sonia | Blackberry & wild rose |
Blackberry and wild rose / Sonia Velton
This debut novel by Sonia Velton is set in Spitalfields, London, in the late 18th century when the Huguenots had brought the silk industry to England after fleeing from religious persecution in France. Esther Thorel is married to a master silk weaver; she paints and has an ambition to see one of her paintings translated into silk, which is the material from which most clothes for the wealthy are made, but harder times are coming. Esther also takes on a young girl called Sarah Kemp as her lady’s maid. In the kitchen, Moll is the kitchen maid, and working on a silk loom at the top of the house is Bisby Lambert, a journeyman silk weaver who wishes to be admitted to the Weavers’ Company. It is around these characters that the novel is written. Life is hard, men rule in every aspect, and women are regarded as worth nothing more than to keep an orderly house and produce the next generation. The story is based on real people and real events. Esther herself is based on Anna Maria Garthwaite, the foremost designer of silks in London at the time, and many of her designs can still be seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The silk riots took place when cheaper Indian calico threatened the trade and men were hanged for taking part in them. The story is well written, and one can easily empathise with the women concerned. The author’s note at the end is well worth reading before you read the novel itself. (Historical Novel Society, February 2019)
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MYSTERY
| Allen, Conrad | Murder on the Mauretania |
| Bilal, Parker | The divinities |
| Bowen, Rhys | Away in a manger |
| Brett, Simon | Death under the dryer |
| Cayre, Hannelore | The godmother |
| Cole, Daniel | Endgame |
| Cole, Martina | No mercy |
| Connelly, Michael | The night fire |
| Cotterill, Colin | The second biggest nothing |
| Fowler, Christopher | The water room |
| Francis, Felix | Guilty not guilty |
| French, Nicci | The lying room |
| Gerritsen, Tess | The shape of night |
| Gray, Lisa | Bad memory |
| Griffiths, Elly | Now you see them |
| Gustawsson, Johana | Keeper |
| Hammer, Chris | Silver |
| Herron, Mick | Smoke and whispers |
| Kot, Danuta | Life ruins |
| Marsons, Angela | Child’s play |
| Martin, Faith | A fatal mistake |
| Miscellaneous | The best American mystery stories 2018 |
| Miscellaneous | The best American mystery stories 2019 |
| Moss, Tara | Dead Man Switch |
| Patterson, James | The 19th Christmas |
| Staalesen, Gunnar | Wolves at the door |
| Stuart, A. M. | Singapore sapphire |
| Unger, Lisa | The stranger inside |
| White, Christian | The wife and the widow |
| Wilson, Sam | Zodiac |
Silver / Chris Hammer
Silver is Chris Hammer’s follow-up to his bestselling debut Scrublands. In Hammer’s second novel, journalist Martin Scarsden, fresh from turning the events of Scrublands into a book, follows his new partner Mandy to the town where she’s just inherited a property—a place where they can start a new life. But Port Silver has a firm grasp on Martin’s past as the location of the traumatic childhood he survived and then decisively ignored. His arrival dovetails gruesomely with the murder of his old friend Jasper in Mandy’s rented home, and any hope of their fresh start is replaced with the need to clear Mandy of the crime—and unearth the truth about what is happening in this picturesque town simmering with tensions over land ownership and long-soured relationships. It’s a complex tale, with Scarsden, an ex-foreign correspondent, trying to work through his past. Unable to let go of his journalistic background, he complicates things further by putting himself in the story. The immediacy of the writing makes for heightened tension—Hammer doesn’t let up, even when his descriptions of the town’s beauty slows the story down—and the book is as heavy on the detail as it is on conveying Scarsden’s emotional state. Silver is a dramatic blood-pumper of a book for lovers of Sarah Bailey and Dave Warner. (Books and Publishing, 25 July 2019)
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NON FICTION
| Adelaide, Debra | The innocent reader | 028.9 ADEL |
| Bryson, Bill | The body | 612 BRYS |
| Clinton, Hillary Rodham | The book of gutsy women | 920.72 CLIN |
| Dorren, Gaston | Lingo | 409.4 DORR |
| Ehrenreich, Barbara | Nickel and dimed | 305 EHRE |
| Gladwell, Malcolm | Talking to strangers | 302 GLAD |
| Hamad, Ruby | White tears brown scars | 305.42 HAMA |
| James, Clive | Somewhere becoming rain | 821.914 JAME |
| Kay, Adam | Twas the nightshift before Christmas | 610.92 KAY |
| McClymont, Kate | Dead man walking | 364.1524 MCCL |
| Storr, Will | The science of storytelling | 808.3 STOR |
| Toohey, Brian | Secret | 320.994 TOOH |
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POETRY
| Miscellaneous | Sweatshop women |
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ROMANCE
| Laurens, Stephanie | A buccaneer at heart |
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Atwood, Margaret | The testaments |
| Bardugo, Leigh | Ninth house |
| Cornwell, Patricia | Quantum |
| Moore, Syd | Strange tombs |
| Pullman, Philip | The secret Commonwealth |
Ninth house / Leigh Bardugo
Bardugo’s excellent first fantasy novel for adults introduces an antihero who is just the right person to take on rising dangers in an elitist society. Galaxy “Alex” Stern’s early life was wrecked by her unusual ability to see “Grays”—earthbound ghosts—but that same ability gains her admission into one of the magic-based houses at Yale. As she struggles to adjust to college life, she’s forced to confront evil powers swirling under the thin veneers of tradition and ritual. When a young woman is killed, Alex becomes determined to find the murderer, even if it means dodging attempts on her life and striking eldritch bargains. Alex is the story’s gritty, rock-solid heart. While other characters refuse to admit what’s happening, too insulated by their own privilege or distracted by banal needs such as funding, Bardugo gives Alex a thoroughly engaging mix of rough edge, courage, and cynicism, all of which are required to get things done. Much of the book’s white-knuckled tension comes from the increasingly horrific flashbacks revealing Alex’s past, which is still very present in her mind. Fantasy readers, particularly those who love ghosts, will hungrily devour this novel. (Publishers Weekly, 24 July 2019)
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New additions to eBooks at SMSA
EBOOKS
| Animal stories | Cameron, Bruce | A dog’s promise |
| General novels | Barker, Nicola | I am sovereign |
| General novels | Wood, Charlotte | The weekend |
| Mystery | Freeman, Diane | A lady’s guide to gossip and murder |
| Mystery | Jones, Tony | In darkness visible |
| Mystery | Lapena, Shari | Someone we know |
| Mystery | Lynch, Rachel | Deep fear |
| Non fiction | Odell, Jenny | How to do nothing |
| Romance | Vincy, Mia | A wicked kind of husband |
| Science fiction and fantasy | Proby, Kristin | Shadows |
A lady’s guide to gossip and murder / Diane Freeman
Set in 1899 London, Freeman’s engrossing sequel to 2018’s A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder finds American-born Frances Wynn, Countess of Harleigh, settling happily into her independent life as a widow. Two relatives and a close friend are visiting from New York, and, as an added bonus, Frances’s relationship with her charming neighbor, George Hazelton, is beginning to take a distinctively romantic turn. Frances recently introduced Charles Evingdon, her genial cousin-by-marriage, to widow Mary Archer, thinking the two would make a good match, so she’s disappointed when she learns that Charles and Mary have called it quits. Her disappointment turns to alarm when Mary is murdered and Charles becomes the prime suspect. When Frances teams with George and Charles to find the real culprit, they discover that Mary was the anonymous author of a newspaper gossip column. Was she also a blackmailer who threatened to expose something worth killing for? Freeman takes a witty look at Victorian polite society. Historical mystery fans will be delighted. (Publishers Weekly, May 2019)
Someone we know / Shari Lapena
In this slyly plotted if anemically peopled page-turner from bestseller Lapena, there’s nary a ripple in the bucolic Hudson Valley city of Aylesford, N.Y., after lawyer Robert Pierce reports his wife, Amanda, missing; most neighbors assume Amanda simply left him. But when rumors spread that an at first unnamed teen has been breaking into homes and hacking into the occupants’ computers, it’s quite a different story, setting in motion a snowballing of suspicion, subterfuge, and bungled amateur sleuthing. The discovery of a car with a badly bludgeoned body inside the trunk in a nearby lake potentially creates a huge problem for 16-year-old hacker Raleigh Sharpe, whose fingerprints are all over the victim’s house. He also risks being identified because of the ill-advised anonymous apology notes his mother slips under the doors of those he admits to her to have hacked. Lapena skillfully maximizes suspense with her dual story lines that eventually collide, as well as some deft misdirection. Many fans of domestic suspense will be satisfied. (Publishers Weekly, May 2019)
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AUDIOBOOKS
| Biography | Hardman, John | Marie-Antoinette |
| General novels | Duke, Beth | It all comes back to you |
| General novels | Summers, Melanie | The honeymooner |
| Mystery | Cantore, Janice | Crisis shot |
| Mystery | Castillo, Linda | Fade to red |
| Mystery | Gardner, G. P. | Murder at Harbor Village |
| Mystery | Lindsay, Julie Ann | Apple cider slaying |
| Mystery | Rosett, Sara | The Egyptian antiquities murder |
| Mystery | Shelton, Paige | Of books and bagpipes |
| Romance | Henrie, Stacey | Night at the opera |
The Egyptian antiquities murder / Sara Rosett
In Rosett’s lively third High Society Lady Detective mystery set in 1920s England, Olive Belgrave, who was once an unemployed gentlewoman but is now a full-fledged private investigator, is summoned to London’s upscale Mayfair neighborhood by Lady Agnes, whose uncle, Lord Mulvern, an “eminent Egyptologist and possessor of a cache of mummies,” died a month earlier. A brief note the uncle left behind suggests he was driven to suicide by a mummy’s curse. Unfortunately, the tabloids are still cranking out scandalous stories with headlines such as “Mummy haunts Mayfair town house.” Over tea, Lady Agnes tells Olive, “I want you to get to the bottom of this curse nonsense… Oh, I don’t want you to debunk the curse. I want you to prove Uncle Lawrence was murdered.” Suspects abound. Olive’s good friend, clever Jasper Rimington, is on hand to serve as a sounding board and to provide a bit of backup. A good plot, elegant prose, and a charming narrative voice all add up to a winner. Readers will eagerly await Olive’s next adventure. (Publishers Weekly, September 2019)
Of books and bagpipes / Paige Shelton
In Shelton’s enjoyable second Scottish Bookshop cozy, Edwin MacAlister, owner of the Edinburgh bookshop the Cracked Spine, dispatches his American assistant, Delaney Nichols, to Castle Doune, a well-preserved ruin in the countryside, where she’s to meet a mystery man with a 1930s comic book to sell, Oor Wullie. Atop the battlements, Delaney finds her contact lying dead, dressed in medieval costume. Spotting the copy of Oor Wullie near the body, Delaney impulsively hides it in her jacket. The victim turns out to have a complicated link to Edwin’s past and the four members of a secret society from Edwin’s college days. But who would kill over a comic book, and what’s its connection to Edwin and his college chums? Delaney once again turns sleuth, putting her life in peril in a way she could never have imagined before moving from Kansas to Scotland. Fortunately, handsome pub owner Tom Fletcher is on hand to provide some romantic interest amid the dark doings. (Publishers Weekly, February 2017)
New Books — November 2019
The new books for November 2019 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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