SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
BIOGRAPHY
| Alderton, Dolly | Everything I know about love |
| Briese, Clarrie | Corruption in high places |
| Kadota, Yumiko | Emotional female |
| Milligan, Louise | Witness |
| Morton, Rick | My year of living vulnerably |
| Wilcox, Claire | Patch work |
| Xue, Jingjing | Shanghai acrobat |
Everything I know about love / Dolly Alderton
A Sunday Times columnist draws her coming-of-age story with tender flair. “We were the worst type of students imaginable. We were reckless and self-absorbed and childish and violently carefree. We were Broken Britain,” writes Alderton, a TV writer and co-host of the podcast The High Low, in this incisive tribute to women’s friendships. The collection gathers essays from a variety of eras of her life: her teen years, when she attended an all-girls school, cemented her fascination with boys, and dreamed about being a grown-up (“I was desperate to be an adult”); her chaotic 20s, which proved some of her fantasies wrong; and the dawning of her 30s, when she found some semblance of wisdom. The narrative is also a splendid mashup of recipes (“hangover mac and cheese”), hyperbolic group e-mails mocking the smugness of the coupled and the resentment of singles; and lively recollections on everything from awkward online encounters to body image and blackout drunkenness. Alderton paints British suburbia in hypercolor while drawing herself as a woman who’s prone to excess. How her view of love matured is steeped in anxious charm, striking a clever balance between painful humor and self-forgiveness. “Dating had become a source of instant gratification, an extension of narcissism, and nothing to do with connection with another person,” she writes. “Time and time again, I had created intensity with a man and confused it with intimacy.” But it’s the author’s relationship with best friend Farly—“there isn’t a pebble on the beach of my history that she has left unturned. She knows where to find everything in me and I know where all her stuff is too”—that inspires the most poetic passages. Whether excavating the turmoil of seeing Farly fall in love and get her heart broken, writing about the significance of her support when Farly’s sister died, or revisiting the many everyday moments that have made up their 20 years together, Alderton’s portrait exemplifies love. A poignant breath of fresh air for those who struggled—or are struggling—with the dramedy of early adulthood. (Kirkus Reviews, 25 Feb 2020)
My year of living vulnerably / Rick Morton
Anyone who enjoyed Rick Morton’s memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt will want to read My Year of Living Vulnerably. Under a disparate set of headings—The Self, Forgiveness, Animals, Touch, Beauty, Masculinity, Loneliness, Kindness, Dysfunction, Doubt, Next, Beginnings—Morton weaves together a wonderfully readable and wide-ranging exploration of the visible and invisible touchstones of our lives. He takes us on an enjoyable and enlightening metaphysical magic carpet ride powered by curiosity—about the personal (a sexual assault, his diagnosis of complex PTSD, a family history of colonial violence and racism, a wonderful, chook-loving mum) and about the world. Morton shares a slap-up meal with a homeless man in New York, digs into consciousness and the evolution of language, describes the astonishing power of music’s appoggiatura, and reveals the horror of Japanese elder loneliness and the soothing qualities of therapeutic robot seals. Despite, or perhaps because of, Morton’s self-obsession and desperate need for bear hugs, this is nourishing reading for our lonely, frightening and fraught times. Part self-help book, part treatise on the importance of love, kindness and forgiveness, by the end we are cheering on our very own Fat Jesus, for whom personal happiness might finally be just within reach. Morton is a national treasure and we need more like him. (Books in Publishing, 20 January 2021)
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GENERAL FICTION
| Bedford, Kavita | Friends and dark shapes |
| Bignell, Meg Ashton | Welcome to Nowhere River |
| Coben, Harlan | Win |
| Cooper, C. J. | The verdict |
| Coster, Naima | What’s mine and yours |
| Dare, Abi | The girl with the louding voice |
| Farris Smith, Michael | Nick |
| Harding, Flora | Before the crown |
| Hurley, Graham | Estocada |
| Isaka, Kotaro | Bullet train |
| Ishiguro, Kazuo | Klara and the sun |
| Mackie, Andrew | The tour |
| McLaughlin, Danielle | The art of falling |
| Nguyen, Viet Thanh | The committed |
| Oswald, Debra | The family doctor |
| Quotah, Eman | Bride of the sea |
| Reddan, Erina | The serpent’s skin |
| Salom, Philip | The fifth season |
| Simpson, Nardi | Song of the crocodile |
| Tevis, Walter S. | The queen’s gambit |
| Thomas, Claire | The performance |
| Young, Emma | The last bookshop |
Nick / Michael Farris Smith
A dark and often gripping story that imagines the narrator of The Great Gatsby in the years before that book began. Nick grows up in a Minnesota “neighborhood of sidewalks and shade trees” and goes to Yale and then to war. On leave in Paris, he’s with a woman he loves for too short a time and loses her. He survives the trenches, the scuttling over no man’s land, the tunnels where a man alone listens for the sound of the enemy setting explosives. On his way home, he makes a detour to New Orleans and finds himself “privy to the secret griefs” (as he says in Gatsby) of a brothel owner and her estranged husband, a war veteran scarred by mustard gas and stifled love. Smith is a talented writer known mainly for his gritty evocations of violence, struggle, and loss in the U.S. South, such as those in Blackwood (2020). Here he creates, in the war and New Orleans, nightmarish worlds where Nick reckons with demons and maybe redemption. These are places far from the staid tension and off-stage deaths of Gatsby. Smith inevitably goes well beyond the sparse biographical details—Yale, the Midwest, the family hardware business, World War I, and bond trading—that F. Scott Fitzgerald provided for his narrator, who exists to bring other lives into view, not expose his own. The new Nick is a man fully realized, with a mind tormented by the war and by a first love that waned too fast to a fingernail moon of bitter memory. Whatever Smith had in mind when he began this project, he could have many readers wondering in some meta-anachronism how Fitzgerald’s Nick could fail to allude to any of the hell Smith puts him through. A compelling character study and a thoroughly unconventional prequel. (Kirkus Reviews, 5 January 2021)
Klara and the sun / Kazuo Ishiguro
Nobelist Ishiguro returns to familiar dystopian ground with this provocative look at a disturbing near future. Klara is an AF, or “Artificial Friend,” of a slightly older model than the current production run; she can’t do the perfect acrobatics of the newer B3 line, and she is in constant need of recharging owing to “solar absorption problems,” so much so that “after four continuous days of Pollution,” she recounts, “I could feel myself weakening.” She’s uncommonly intelligent, and even as she goes unsold in the store where she’s on display, she takes in the details of every human visitor. When a teenager named Josie picks her out, to the dismay of her mother, whose stern gaze “never softened or wavered,” Klara has the opportunity to learn a new grammar of portentous meaning: Josie is gravely ill, the Mother deeply depressed by the earlier death of her other daughter. Klara has never been outside, and when the Mother takes her to see a waterfall, Josie being too ill to go along, she asks the Mother about that death, only to be told, “It’s not your business to be curious.” It becomes clear that Klara is not just an AF; she’s being groomed to be a surrogate daughter in the event that Josie, too, dies. Much of Ishiguro’s tale is veiled: We’re never quite sure why Josie is so ill, the consequence, it seems, of genetic editing, or why the world has become such a grim place. It’s clear, though, that it’s a future where the rich, as ever, enjoy every privilege and where children are marshaled into forced social interactions where the entertainment is to abuse androids. Working territory familiar to readers of Brian Aldiss—and Carlo Collodi, for that matter—Ishiguro delivers a story, very much of a piece with his Never Let Me Go, that is told in hushed tones, one in which Klara’s heart, if she had one, is destined to be broken and artificial humans are revealed to be far better than the real thing. A haunting fable of a lonely, moribund world that is entirely too plausible. (Kirkus Reviews, 2 March 2021)
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HISTORICAL FICTION
| Adams, Hope | Dangerous women |
| Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith | All in scarlet uniform |
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MYSTERY
| Andrews, Alexandra | Who is Maud Dixon? |
| Benedict, Marie | The mystery of Mrs. Christie |
| Chan, Ho-Kei | Second sister |
| Corris, Peter | Man in the shadows |
| East, Philippa | Safe and sound |
| Goddard, Robert | The fine art of invisible detection |
| Hannah, Mari | Without a trace |
| Howard, Catherine Ryan | The nothing man |
| Hunter, Cara | The whole truth |
| Kayode, Femi | Lightseekers |
| Leon, Donna | Transient desires |
| Lodge, Gytha | Lie beside me |
| Martin, Faith | A fatal affair |
| Olguin, Sergio | The foreign girls |
| Oswald, James | What will burn |
| Patterson, James | 21st birthday |
| Quartey, Kwei | Sleep well, my lady |
| Sheridan, Sarah | The convent |
| Templeton, Aline | Devil’s garden |
| Thorogood, Robert | The Marlow Murder Club |
| Upson, Nicola | Fear in the sunlight |
| Vesper, Inga | The long, long afternoon |
| Wyer, Carol E. | An eye for an eye |
Lightseekers / Femi Kayode
Three university students accused of theft are paraded through dusty streets by angry townsfolk in Okriki, southern Nigeria. Beatings, bricks,and burning tyres. A modern-day lynching, broadcast for the world to see on social media. Two years later investigative psychologist Dr Philip Taiwo, a researcher into crowd behaviour and mob violence who’s recently returned to Nigeria with his family, heads south from Lagos to find out why. Hired by a banking magnate whose son was a victim, and ably assisted by Chika, a driver who seems to have a lot of other skills, Taiwo is confronted by a hostile township and local police force. Are they just trying to move on the horrors inflicted in their community, or are they covering up something even worse? Something to kill for, again. Light Seekers is an exceptional crime novel. Debut author Kayode immerses readers in a wonderfully evocative sense of people and place. The Namibia-based author finely balances exciting action and rising tension with thoughtful explorations of a variety of issues such as social media misinformation and the conflation of justice and violence. A bruising, intense read from a powerful new voice in crime fiction. Hopefully it’s just the beginning for Femi Kayode and Dr Philip Taiwo. (Good Reading Magazine, April 2021)
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NON FICTION
| Beaumont, Matthew | The walker | 820.9 BEAU |
| Cunningham, Sophie | City of trees | 508.315 CUNN |
| Kimmerer, Robin Wall | Braiding sweetgrass | 305.897 KIMM |
| Krasnostein, Sarah | The believer | 121.6 KRAS |
| Mercer, Neil | Barrenjoey Road | 364.150994 MERC |
| Saunders, George | A swim in a pond in the rain | 891.708 SAUN |
| Watson, Don | Watsonia | 824.3 WATS |
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ROMANCE
| Quinn, Julia | The Duke and I |
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Chambers, Becky | The galaxy and the ground within |
| Mandel, Emily St. John | Station eleven |
| Martine, Arkady | A memory called Empire |
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New additions to eBooks at SMSA
EBOOKS
| Biography | Morton, Rick | My year of living vulnerably |
| General novels | Burns, Debbie | Summer by the river |
| General novels | Fisher, Tarryn | The wrong family |
| General novels | Johnson, Susan | From where I fell |
| Mystery | Ann Lynch, Carissa | She lied she died |
| Mystery | Bayard, Tania | Murder in the Cloister |
| Mystery | Leitch, Fiona | Murder on the menu |
| Mystery | Stonex, Emma | The lamplighters |
| Mystery | White, Nicola | The rosary garden |
| Non fiction | Zanglein, Jayne | The girl explorers |
Murder in the Cloister / Tania Bayard
Set in 1393 Paris, Bayard’s impressive first novel and series launch introduces Christine de Pizan, a widow who struggles to support her family as a freelance scribe. When Queen Isabeau retains her to copy a book as a wedding gift for a favored lady-in-waiting, Christine heads to the palace, only to have a frightening encounter with a man in a black cloak who’s not wearing shoes, despite the bitterly cold weather. She’s even more unnerved when she finds the same man stabbed through the heart in the palace itself, and learns that he was in the employ of the Duke of Orléans, King Charles’s brother. The motive for the murder seems clear, as a book the dead man was bringing to the duke has vanished. After a second murder claims the life of another person connected to the court, Christine turns detective to exonerate the woman suspected of that crime. Bayard excels at describing people and places and puts her knowledge of the period to good use in crafting an engrossing whodunit. (Publishers Weekly, 18 June 2018)
The lamplighters / Emma Stonex
British author Stonex’s spectacular debut wraps a haunting mystery in precise, starkly beautiful prose. In 1972, a boatman arrives at the desolate Maiden Rock lighthouse off the coast of Mortehaven, Cornwall, to pick up one of its three keepers for a scheduled break. Instead, he finds the trio—principal keeper Arthur Black; Black’s junior, Bill Walker; and third-in-command Vincent Bourne—gone. The tower is locked from the inside, the log chronicles strange storms that never happened, and the clocks are stopped at 8:45. Twenty years later, a writer determined to crack the unsolved mystery contacts the women the lighthouse keepers left behind. Now living in Bath, Helen Black returns to Mortehaven twice a year to commemorate her husband. She writes regularly to Bill’s wife, Jenny, hoping to be forgiven for Bill’s onetime obsession with her, but Jenny discards the letters in anger. Now in a troubled marriage, Vince’s former girlfriend, Michelle Davies, is sure that he played no role in the disappearance, despite his earlier brushes with the law. Seamlessly marrying quotidian detail with ghostly touches, the author captures both the lighthouse’s lure and the damage its isolation and confinement wreak on minds and families. The convincing resolution brings a welcome note of healing. Readers will eagerly await Stonex’s next. (Publishers Weekly, 25 January 2021)
The girl explorers / Jayne Zanglein
Historian Zanglein debuts with an entertaining look at the founders and early members of the International Society of Women Geographers. Founded in 1925, the society was started by explorers, artists, scientists, and writers who shared a common love for travel and exploration in an era when women were told their place was in the home. Zanglein briskly recounts the accomplishments of individual members and their fights for recognition, detailing, for example, how mountain climber Annie Peck (1850–1935) was the first to scale the northern peak of Mount Huascarán in Peru, in 1908, but was ignored by the media 26 years later, when a group of men ascended the southern peak. Other members included Margaret Edith Trussell (1928–1988), who argued that the female perspective was essential to the field of geography, and society cofounder Blair Niles (1880–1959), whose ex-husband, with whom she had participated in several expeditions, refused to include her name on their publications and plagiarized large sections from her personal publications for his book. With careful research and clear enthusiasm for her subjects, Zanglein makes a strong case that restoring these pioneers to the spotlight will “give a new generation of women courage to chisel away at the glass ceiling.” Armchair adventurers will thrill to this inspirational account. (Publishers Weekly, 4 January, 2021)
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AUDIOBOOKS
| General novels | Coble, Colleen | Two reasons to run |
| General novels | Dean, Abigail | Girl A |
| General novels | Katsu, Alma | Red widow |
| Mystery | Brennan, Allison | Tell no lies |
| Mystery | Day, Maddie | Murder at the Taffy Shop |
| Mystery | Graham, Heather | Danger in numbers |
| Mystery | Hill, Edwin | Little comfort |
| Mystery | Thorogood, Robert | The Marlow Murder Club |
| Mystery | Tyson, Wendy | Sowing malice |
| Romance | Quinn, Julie | Romancing Mister Bridgerton |
Two reasons to run / Colleen Coble
Early in Coble’s convoluted sequel to One Little Lie, high school principal Ruby McDonald tells Jane Hardy, the police chief of Pelican Harbor, Ala., that her son, Keith, a worker on a Gulf oil platform, is missing. Ruby shares a copy of an email Keith sent her two days earlier saying he believes he’s in danger and urging her to go see Chief Hardy. He adds, “I think an attack on the oil rig is being planned. Terrorists maybe, but I’m not sure who is behind the plot.” Since finding a missing platform worker isn’t Jane’s jurisdiction, she suggests consulting Homeland Security. Meanwhile, Jane reunites with her ex-boyfriend, filmmaker Reid Dixon, who’s the father of her 15-year-old son, Will. Since Homeland Security won’t pursue the case without a body, Jane and Reid investigate on their own. The stakes rise when an assassin targets Will in an attempt to dissuade Jane and Reid from their quest. Too many characters and their backstories slow the action, but readers will care enough about Jane and company to stick with their story to the end. Series fans will eagerly anticipate the third and final installment. (Publishers Weekly, 24 August 2020)
Girl A / Abigail Dean
Alexandra “Lex” Gracie, the protagonist of Dean’s harrowing debut, grew up in an abusive home in Hollowfield, England, from which she escaped 15 years earlier and freed her older brother and four younger siblings. Her father committed suicide the day of her escape; her mother, Deborah, later went to prison; and she and her brothers and sisters were placed in foster homes. Now a 30-something lawyer in New York City, Lex returns to England after she learns Deborah has died of cancer. Deborah has made Lex the executor of her estate, which includes the Hollowfield house. Lex wants to turn the “house of horrors” into a community center, but she needs approval from each of her siblings to do so. Meanwhile, her identity as Girl A, as she was identified in the press at the time of her escape, resurfaces, forcing her to recollect the abuse and negligence they all endured from their parents. The frequent and ambiguous narrative shifts from past to present can be hard to follow, but the author skillfully brings the complicated relationships among the siblings as well as the secrets they share into dramatic relief. This assured psychological thriller marks Dean as a writer to watch. (Publishers Weekly, 21 December 2020)
Little comfort / Edwin Hill
Harvard librarian Hester Thursby, the heroine of Hill’s well-crafted, extremely promising debut and series launch, runs a side business locating lost people. She’s hired by Lila Blaine to find her brother, Sam, who ran away from their home in New Hampshire 12 years earlier, when he was 14, with his friend Gabe DiPursio. Lila says she wants to sell a piece of lakefront property called Little Comfort and split the proceeds with Sam. Hester soon discovers that Sam is now living in Boston under an alias and has insinuated himself into the life of wealthy socialite Wendy Richards, while Gabe is supporting them both as a freelance programmer. When someone at a party recognizes Sam, Sam decides it’s time to tie up loose ends and move on. Meanwhile, Hester has befriended lonely Gabe, who has built a homey domestic fantasy around her, but Sam views Hester as an obstacle and expects Gabe to help get her out of the way. An increasingly tense plot and striking characters—in particular, compassionate, conflicted, loving Hester—make this a standout. (Publishers Weekly, 2 July 2018)
Red widow / Alma Katsu
Lyndsey Duncan, one of two female CIA officers at the center of this quiet but gripping espionage thriller from Katsu (Hunger), has just returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., her reputation tainted by an affair she had with a British intelligence officer in Lebanon. Nonetheless, she’s assigned to check out rumors of a mole in the CIA’s Moscow operation. Lyndsey’s investigation eventually leads her to analyst Theresa Warner, who’s still reeling from the apparent death of her husband, an agency spy handler who disappeared in Russia two years earlier while on a mission. Theresa has discovered that her husband is still alive, in a Russian prison, and the CIA has been lying to her. An outraged Theresa has agreed to pass secrets to the Russians in exchange for the release of her husband. Katsu, a former intelligence analyst, captures the thorny but oddly intimate alliance between two CIA officers who share an adversarial relationship with their employer, while providing an intriguing look at the day-to-day office politics and jostling that goes on behind Langley’s walls. Best known for her novels of psychological terror, Katsu shows a sure hand at a new genre. (Publishers Weekly, 14 December 2020)
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New Books – April 2021
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