SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
New Book Highlights
BIOGRAPHY
| Blainey, Geoffrey | Before I forget |
| Higgins, Chloe | The girls |
| Phillips, Jonathan | The life and legend of the Sultan Saladin |
The girls / Chloe Higgins
Wollongong author Chloe Higgins began writing her memoir The Girls during a stint in a psychiatric ward. Years before, in 2005, her two younger sisters, Carlie and Lisa, were killed in a car accident while her father was driving. They had been returning from a ski holiday and 17-year-old Higgins had stayed home with her mother to study for the HSC. The violence with which this singular tragedy acts upon the Higgins family is visceral and devastating. Higgins’ father withdraws, punctured by guilt and shame. Higgins’ relationship to him becomes protective, stilted. He will never forgive himself. Her mother is the opposite. With only one child left, she is overbearing, suffocating. For much of the book Carlie and Lisa are referred to in the abstract, as ‘the girls’, their memory kept at a distance, too agonising to unpack. Instead, we dive into Higgins’ early adulthood, a disorientating whirlwind of substance abuse, sex work, and piercing loneliness. Higgins is conscious of the inevitable fallibility of her recollections; the narrative itself is nonlinear and fragmented, perhaps reflecting the chaos of a traumatised mind. But even as some of the memories distort and conflict, the book remains a clear-eyed, compelling portrait of grief and family. Along the way, Higgins makes determined attempts to claw her way back to stability. The story eventually catches up with itself, and she finds herself negotiating the treacherous personal and moral challenges of writing so candidly about her life and loved ones. On the one hand, she finds solace and catharsis in the writing process, but for the book to be worthwhile, she must be brutally, terrifyingly truthful. A formidable, gut-wrenching, privilege of a book. (Good Reading Magazine, August 2019)
Return to top
GENERAL FICTION
| Baker, Jo | The body lies |
| Barrie, Sarah | Devil’s lair |
| Barry, Kevin | Night boat to Tangier |
| Bryer, Elizabeth | From here on, monsters |
| Chevalier, Tracy | Single thread |
| Coetzee, J. M. | Life & times of Michael K. |
| Davis, Fiona | The Chelsea girls |
| Dolan-Leach, Caite | We went to the woods |
| Evaristo, Bernardine | Girl, woman, other |
| Ferencik, Erica | Into the jungle |
| Galligan, John | Bad axe county |
| Goldsworthy, Peter | Minotaur |
| Good, Anthony | Kill [redacted] |
| Hilderbrand, Elin | Summer of ’69 |
| Hind, Kathryn | Hitch |
| Lefteri, Christy | The beekeeper of Aleppo |
| Levy, Deborah | The man who saw everything |
| Marks, Nadia | Between the orange groves |
| Montefiore, Santa | The secret hours |
| Musso, Guillaume | The reunion |
| Obreht, Tea | Inland |
| Rhoades, Joy | The burnt country |
| Roberts, Nora | Under currents |
| Rushdie, Salman | Quichotte |
| Smith, Sarah Elaine | Marilou is everywhere |
| Tsao, Tiffany | Under your wings |
| Vilhauer, Ruvanee Pietersz | The mask collectors |
| Ward, Annie Nigh | Beautiful bad |
| Ward, Jesmyn | Sing, unburied, sing |
| Wiggs, Susan | The Oysterville sewing circle |
| Woods, Stuart | Contraband |
From here on, monsters / Elizabeth Bryer
Set in a not too distant future, we first meet young antiquarian bookseller Cameron Raybould amongst the shelves of the bookstore left to her after the death of her beloved mentor Alister. Cam is still struggling with her grief as she attempts to keep Alister’s legacy going by running the store and taking on commissions and assessing collections. Closing the shop for the day, she makes her way to see two new clients. The first job is to assess a highly unusual collection – a job that unsettles her. The second commission is what looks like an ancient codex, which sets her on a path of enquiry and discovery that will cause her to question all that she knows and holds dear. Crossing her path along this journey is the famous and enigmatic artist Maddison Worthington who Cam finds herself working for and a young refugee, Jhon, who makes his home in the store and helps Cam to unlock the secrets of the codex. It is not a surprise to learn that this is the debut novel of a translator, as words and their meanings play a vital role in the layers of understanding that are peeled away as you turn the pages. This is a very different read and is not the sort of book you can pick up and put down at random intervals. This book demands time and commitment, even pushing the boundaries of how you physically read the words. The compelling storyline and characters make the investment worthwhile. This is an author to watch. (Good Reading Magazine, August 2019)
The burnt country / Joy Rhoades
In this lively rural romance, a sequel to The Woolgrower’s Companion, it’s now 1948 and the young heroine Kate has become sole owner of a sheep farm in northern NSW after her father’s sudden death and the departure of her abusive husband Jack. But most of the men of the township and the neighbouring farms are sceptical or openly insulting about the ability of a woman to run a farm, and she faces resistance or worse on all sides. Tensions escalate when she butts heads with the well-to-do owner of a neighbouring property who scolds her for her burning-off practices, and when a bushfire does break out, she is inevitably blamed. This is a well-crafted commercial novel with a twisty plot and some highly believable characters. Perhaps the goodies and baddies are a little too well demarcated even for this sort of novel, but it’s an engaging read nonetheless. (Sydney Morning Herald, 10 August 2019)
Return to top
HISTORICAL FICTION
| Gregory, Philippa | Tidelands |
| Harris, Robert | The second sleep |
| Haynes, Natalie | A thousand ships |
Return to top
MYSTERY
| Anderson, Lin | Time for the dead |
| Andrews, Donna | Terns of endearment |
| Ayliffe, Tim | State of fear |
| Bailey, Sarah | Where the dead go |
| Bannalec, Jean-Luc | The Fleur de Sel murders |
| Barclay, Alex | I confess |
| Barclay, Linwood | Elevator pitch |
| Bengtsdotter, Lina | For the missing |
| Bottini, Oliver | The dance of death |
| Bowen, Rhys | Love and death among the cheetahs |
| Box, C. J. | The bitterroots |
| Brett, Simon | The killer in the choir |
| Brown, Sandra | Outfox |
| Bruns, Catherine | Penne dreadful |
| Castillo, Linda | Shamed |
| Chien, Vivien | Wonton terror |
| Cleverly, Barbara | Fall of angels |
| Corris, Peter | See you at the Toxteth |
| Davies, Michelle | Dead guilty |
| Dyer, Ashley | Splinter in the blood |
| Eldridge, Jim | Murder at the British museum |
| Ellis, Kate | Dead man’s lane |
| Ellis, Kate | The boy who lived with the dead |
| Green, J. M. | Shoot through |
| Herron, Mick | Why we die |
| Holt, Anne | A grave for two |
| Horst, Jorn Lier | The cabin |
| Ison, Graham | Naked flames |
| Khan, Vaseem | Bad Day at the Vulture Club |
| Lagercrantz, David | The girl who lived twice |
| Lindsay, Douglas | Boy in the well |
| MacNeal, Susan Elia | The prisoner in the castle |
| Meyrick, Denzil | A breath on dying embers |
| Patterson, James | The inn |
| Penny, Louise | A better man |
| Robb, Candace M | A conspiracy of wolves |
| Thompson, Victoria | Murder on Trinity Place |
| Thompson, Victoria | Murder on Union Square |
| Vargas, Fred | This poison will remain |
| Waites, Martyn | The sinner |
| Ware, Ruth | The turn of the key |
Return to top
NON FICTION
| Asbrink, Elisabeth | Made in Sweden | 306.0948 ASBR |
| Box, Dan | Bowraville | 364.994 BOX |
| Cameron-Ash, Margaret | Lying for the Admiralty | 910.92 CAME |
| Cep, Casey N. | Furious hours | 364.152 CEP |
| Ferguson, Adele | Banking bad | 332.1068 FERG |
| Hill, Jess | See what you made me do | 362.82 HILL |
| Op den Kamp, Claudy | A history of intellectual property in 50 objects | 346.04 OPDE |
| Pascoe, Bruce | Salt | 828.4 PASC |
| Tink, Andrew | Honeysuckle creek | 629.45 TINK |
| Wolff, Michael | Siege | 973.933 WOLF |
Made in Sweden / Elisabeth Asbrink
With all things Swedish in Vogue, Sweden has become known as the land of lagom or enough. As Elisabeth Asbrink wryly puts it, the concept promotes a modern, pleasant country, with good taste in design, music and crime fiction. But as crime fiction testifies, the country also has a dark side. This quirky inventory of Swedish values explores the shades of grey behind the branding of Sweden as the shiny home of ABBA and Volvo. She looks at how forced sterilisation of the feeble minded intersected with the logic of state welfare state, the moral compromises underlying Swedish neutrality during WWII and the Nazi sympathies of the founder of IKEA. But it’s not all Bergmanesque gloom. Asbrink also celebrates the Swedes’ sacred relationship with nature, the achievements of its social reformers and the indefatigable biologist Carl Linnaeus. (Sydney Morning Herald, 20-21 July 2019)
See what you made me do / Jess Hill
In Australia, one woman is killed every week by an intimate partner. Investigative reporter Jess Hill estimates that Australian police are called to a domestic abuse incident every two minutes. In her ground-breaking new book, See What You Made Me Do, Hill examines the pervasive and harrowing reality of Australia’s domestic abuse crisis, diving deep into the psychology of the abusive mind, the roots of humiliated fury, the voicelessness of children, and the shortcomings of our justice system in addressing this nationwide emergency. Hill demonstrates remarkable compassion and consideration for both her interview subjects and her readership. Survivors were given the chance to review their stories, suggest changes, and take control of their narrative. I couldn’t stop talking about this book – pulling it out the dinner table, reading parts aloud to my housemates. These are difficult stories hold in your own head – not only due to the incomprehensible horrors unfolding in households across the country, but also because of the complexity of Hill’s research, which sometimes took further dissection and discussion to truly sink in. But above all, I felt compelled to share this book because it felt much too crucial to keep to myself. See What You Made Me Do is essential reading and should be thrust into the hands of every Australian – man, woman, medical professional, police officer, social worker, politician, teacher, writer. All of us should be forced to confront and fight this war. (Good Reading Magazine, August 2019)
Return to top
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Chambers, Becky | To be taught, if fortunate |
| Chokshi, Roshani | The gilded wolves |
| Lee, Fonda | Jade war |
| Ogawa, Yoko | The memory police |
The memory police / Yoko Ogawa
Ogawa returns with a dark and ambitious novel exploring memory and power—both individual and institutional—through a dystopian tale about state surveillance. The unnamed female narrator is an orphaned novelist living on an unnamed island that is in the process of disappearing, item by item. The disappearances, of objects such as ribbons, perfume, birds, and calendars, are manifested in a physical purge of the object as well as a psychological absence in the island’s residents’ memories. The mysterious and brutal Memory Police are in charge of enforcing these disappearances, randomly searching homes and arresting anyone with the ability to retain memory of the disappeared, including the narrator’s mother. When the narrator discovers her editor, R, is someone who does not have the ability to forget, she builds a secret room in her house to hide him, with the help of her former nurse’s husband, an old man who once lived on the ferry, which has also disappeared. Though R may not leave the room for fear of discovery, he, the narrator, and the old man are able to create a sense of home and family. However, the disappearances and the Memory Police both grow more aggressive, with more crucial things disappearing at a faster rate, and it becomes clear that it will be impossible for them—their family unit, and the island as a whole—to continue. The classic Ogawa hallmarks are here, a dark eroticism and idiosyncratic characters, but it’s also clear she’s expanded her range into something even deeper. This is a searing, vividly imagined novel by a wildly talented writer. (Publishers Weekly, 14 June 2019)
Return to top
New additions to eBooks at SMSA
EBOOKS
| General novels | Alharthi, Jokha | Celestial bodies |
| General novels | Frances, Michelle | The daughter |
| General novels | Landragin, Alex | Crossings |
| Mystery | Cleeves, Anne | The long call |
| Mystery | Cayre, Hannelore | The Godmother |
| Mystery | Cleverly, Barbara | Invitation to die |
| Mystery | Penrose, Andrea | Murder at Half Moon Gate |
| Mystery | Todd, Charles | The black ascot |
| Non fiction | Mallett, Xanthé | Cold case investigations |
| Travel | Sherman, Anna | The bells of old Tokyo |
Celestial bodies / Jokha Alharthi
Alharthi’s ambitious, intense novel—her first to be translated into English and winner of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize—examines the radical changes in Oman over the past century from the perspectives of the members of several interconnected families. With exhilarating results, Alharthi throws the reader into the midst of a tangled family drama in which unrequited love, murder, suicide, and adultery seem the rule rather than the exception. She moves between the stream-of-consciousness musings and memories of businessman Abdallah as he flies to Frankfurt and vignettes from the lives of those in his family, the slaves who raised him under the rule of his abusive father, and the members of the large family he married into. These include, among many others, a wife who apparently loves her sewing machine more than him, her two conflicted sisters, a father-in-law conducting a torrid love affair with a Bedouin woman, and an unhappy physician daughter. The scenes establish the remarkable contrasts among the generations, whose members are united primarily by a fierce search for romantic love. The older generation has grown up with strict rules and traditions, the younger generation eats at McDonald’s and wears Armani jeans, and the members of the middle generation, particularly the women, are caught between expectations and aspirations. The novel rewards readers willing to assemble the pieces of Alharthi’s puzzle into a whole, and is all the more satisfying for the complexity of its tale. (Publishers Weekly, August 2019)
The long call / Ann Cleeves
Set in Devon, England, this thoughtful series launch from bestseller Cleeves (the Vera Stanhope series) introduces Det. Insp. Matthew Venn, who spent his childhood among the Barum Brethren, a strict evangelical community led by the charismatic Dennis Salter. As a teenager, Matthew rejected the teachings of the community and was banished. Now in his late 30s, the tightly wound and reserved Matthew works in nearby Barnstable and is married to Jon, who runs a multi-use community arts center called Woodward. When a local man turns up stabbed to death on a beach near Matthew and Jon’s house, the resulting investigation draws a few too many connections to Woodward—including that the victim volunteered there—and soon Matthew’s past and present lives begin to collide. Cleeves makes good use of Devon local color and populates this subtle, expertly paced mystery with distinctive supporting characters. Hopefully, future installments will delve even further into the intriguing Barum Brethren. (Publishers Weekly, July 2019)
Invitation to die / Barbara Cleverly
A third of the way into Cleverly’s undistinguished second mystery set in 1920s Cambridge, England (after 2018’s Fall of Angels), Det. Insp. John Redfyre is walking his dog when he stumbles across a body behind his home. The coroner determines that the dead man, who had a card in his pocket inviting him to “break bread with” a dining group calling themselves Amici Apicii, was throttled. The killer’s m.o. suggests a military connection to Redfyre, which, in turn, suggests to the reader a link to an earlier section of the book recounting the discovery of diamonds by a small group of British soldiers during the Boer War. The card from Amici Apicii also hearkens back to the book’s opening, in which a member of Cambridge University’s medieval history faculty seeks out a transient to invite to that group’s intimate gathering. The underwhelming plot is slow to unfold, and Redfyre is colorless compared with the author’s first series lead, Joe Sandilands. Cleverly has done much better in the past in concocting intriguing murder puzzles. (Publishers Weekly, June 2019)
Murder at half moon gate / Andrea Penrose
After a night of gambling, Lord Wrexford and his friend Sheffield, discover a dead body in an alley. Always a scientist, Wrexford checks on the victim, although he turns the case over to a watchman. It isn’t long before the victim’s widow shows up at Wrexford’s home begging for his assistance, claiming he had once helped her husband, an inventor, who had been working a revolutionary steam engine design. Wrexford turns to Charlotte Sloane, who under the pseudonym A.J. Quill, is recognized as a skilled satirical cartoonist. Together, the two use his society friends, her network of informers, and a group of clever street urchins to investigate the murder of a man whose inventions could change industry and England forever. The compelling follow-up to Murder on Black Swan Lane is an intricately plotted mystery set in Regency England. Its complex story line and authentic historical details bring the early days of the Industrial Revolution vividly to life. Bound to fascinate readers of C.S. Harris and even fans of Victorian mysteries. (Library Journal, March 2018)
The black ascot / Charles Todd
An investigation into an 11-year-old murder unearths some surprising revelations in Inspector Ian Rutledge’s 21st case (The Gate Keeper, 2018, etc.).Rutledge survived World War I shellshocked and living with the ghostly voice of Hamish, a comrade who died in his arms. When he helps a former soldier find his wife, the grateful man gives him a tip that might help Rutledge find one of the most wanted men in Britain, Alan Barrington, who was accused of murder over a decade earlier and hasn’t been seen since. Rutledge’s boss gives him the unwelcome job of following up the clue, which begins the inspector’s unrelenting search for the truth. Barrington had been accused of engineering a motor crash that killed Blanche Thorne and gravely injured her second husband, Harold Fletcher-Munro. Barrington had been positive that Fletcher-Munro drove Barrington’s friend Mark Thorne to financial ruin and suicide so he could marry Blanche. Rutledge starts out by investigating Barrington’s friends, including his lawyer and estate agent, both of whom have known him for years. When each refuses to confirm or deny that he’s still alive, Rutledge begins to consider the possibility that Mark Thorne did not commit suicide but was murdered by one of the several men who wanted Blanche. Conversations with friends and relatives of the parties involved with Blanche reveal many conflicting opinions. Each snippet Rutledge gleans leads him deeper into a complex maze, but he never considers giving up even when his own wartime demons come to the fore. Although the pace of this intricate tale is necessarily slow, the investigation and its ultimate destination are gripping. (Kirkus Reviews, December 2018)
Return to top
AUDIOBOOKS
| General novels | Lee, Sky | Disappearing Moon Café |
| General novels | Carlson, Dolley | The red coat |
| Historical novels | McElwain, Julie | Betrayal in time |
| Mystery | Amphlett, Rachel | Bridge to burn |
| Mystery | Rosett, Sara | Death in the English countryside |
| Mystery | Ellis, Joy | Five bloody hearts |
| Mystery | Lin, Harper | Macchiatos, macarons, and malice |
| Mystery | Blackmoore, Stephanie | Murder borrowed, murder blue |
| Mystery | Dumont, Diana | Peach cobbler poison |
| Mystery | Lovestam, Sara | The truth behind the lie |
Betrayal in time / Julie McElwain
In McElwain’s outstanding fourth mystery set in Regency England (after 2018’s Caught in Time), the authorities ask FBI profiler and time traveler Kendra Donovan, the American ward of the Duke of Aldridge (one of only two people to know she’s from the future), to look into the strangling murder of English spymaster Sir Giles Holbrooke, who was found lying naked on the floor of an abandoned London church with his tongue cut out. During the autopsy, bizarre markings slowly appear all over Sir Giles’s body, possibly forming a message from the killer. Kendra and her detection team, which includes a Bow Street runner and an irreverent journalist, get on a trail that leads them deep into family jealousies and foreign espionage—and to more ritualistic murders. One of the series’ delights is how Kendra, who operates with a shocking degree of independence for a single woman in the era, must repeatedly find ways to use her forensic knowledge and instincts about homicide that don’t send polite society reaching for the smelling salts. With perfect pacing, McElwain holds the reader’s interest from the first page to the last. (Publishers Weekly, May 2019)
Return to top<
New Books — September 2019
The new books for September 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.
Search the Library Catalogue
New Books by Genre
Biography
General Fiction
Historical Fiction
Mystery
Non Fiction
Science Fiction & Fantasy
New eBooks, etc.
Enews Signups |
Get started with eBooks and Audiobooks today
