SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
BIOGRAPHY
| Broinowski, Richard P. | Under the rainbow |
| Hayes, Bill | How we live now |
| Kalb, Bess | Nobody will tell you this but me |
| Li, Mary | Mary’s last dance |
| Swire, Sasha | Diary of an MP’s wife |
| White, Tracie | The puzzle solver |
How we live now / Bill Hayes
Hayes continues journaling about and photographing life in New York City, this time from quarantine. In his latest, the author offers a slim, touching volume of jottings and images from his experience of the pandemic from the apartment he shared with his partner, the late Oliver Sacks. A recent New York Times article entitled “Publishers Snap Up Corona Books, From Case Studies to Plague Poetry” warned that “publishing books about an unfolding calamity, when the duration and outcome remain uncertain, carries obvious risks for authors and publishers.” With that in mind, Hayes’ sweet and searching record of life in March and April seems a bit like a work in progress. His chart “57 Days in the Pandemic in the United States of America” ends on May 7, with “1,292,623 confirmed & 76,928 dead.” Of course, since then, those numbers have risen precipitously—and promise to do so even more by the time the book is published. The photos serve as potent documentation of an unprecedented time: empty subway trains and stations at rush hour, for example, or portraits of masked store owners and delivery drivers, or solitary figures roaming the streets. The author includes pre-pandemic images for contrast: A colorful picture of a packed 8th Avenue in December, illuminated by brake lights and neon, contrasts sharply with a black-and-white image of the same corridor on April 6, its skyscraper canyons empty of all but shadows. The text is less dramatic though engaging and personable enough. The author’s firsthand intersections with the virus are limited to a couple of sick acquaintances and the effect of social distancing on a nascent love affair begun in December. A list poem recalling “The last time I…” did and saw any number of once-mundane things feels like an homage to Joe Brainard’s I Remember. Excellent photos and unassuming journal entries preserve the emotions and sights of the early stages of a pandemic. (Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2020)
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GENERAL FICTION
| Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi | Purple hibiscus |
| Akhtar, Ayad | Homeland elegies |
| Audrain, Ashley | The push |
| Bloom, Laura | The women and the girls |
| Brissenden, Michael | Dead letters |
| Cha, Frances | If I had your face |
| Charles, Janet Skeslien | The Paris library |
| Clements, Rory | Hitler’s secret |
| Clements, Rory | Nemesis |
| Fernandes, Kathleen | Wicked and whimsical |
| Finder, Joseph | House on fire |
| Flann, Elizabeth | Beware of dogs |
| Hannah, Kristin | The four winds |
| Hawkins, Rachel | The wife upstairs |
| Hjorth, Vigdis | Long live the post horn! |
| Hurley, Graham | Raid 42 |
| Levy, Gabrielle | The insomniac society |
| McFarlane, Mhairi | Don’t you forget about me |
| McKenzie-Murray, Martin | The speechwriter |
| Morrow, Bradford | The forger’s daughter |
| Nelson, Caleb Azumah | Open water |
| Rodriguez, Deborah | The Moroccan daughter |
| Starford, Rebecca | The imitator |
| Thompson, Adam | Born into this |
| Washington, Bryan | Memorial |
The push / Ashley Audrain
If you think the long, languid days of summer are best suited to gripping page-turners, then grab a copy of The Push. If you’d prefer to hunker down under a doona with your thrillers, then this book should be in your reading pile for winter. Either way, you’re going to devour The Push. The novel is about a woman named Blythe and it opens with her writing to her ex-husband, Fox, to give ‘her side of the story’. She writes to Fox partly as a confessional and partly as a defence about the tragedy that engulfed their family. Through these reflections we learn that, despite the damaging and disturbing examples of mothering set by her mother and grandmother, Blythe was determined to be a terrific mum. But their firstborn, Violet, was a difficult and possibly even a malevolent child –although only when around Blythe. This apparent duplicity makes Blythe question her maternal abilities but also her grip on reality and when tragedy strikes, everything begins to unravel.Audrain depicts the intense emotions and realities of motherhood authentically, and not just the positive aspects. The book explores the guilt, the shame and micro-power struggles through Blythe’s relationship with Violet, and also the warmth, solace and joy through the relationship with her son, Sam. But it’s not a single theme book; it also excavates the depths of grief, the destructive manifestations of obsession and the consequences of loneliness. The short chapters and deft plotting meant I consumed this book in two days. The Push is a delicious combination of We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Girl on the Train. It’s a riveting thriller that ticks all the right boxes, and plenty more. It’s guarantee we’ll be hearing lots more about this book, with good reason. (Good Reading Magazine, March 2020)
Laura Bloom / The women and the girls
The Women and the Girls follows three mothers as they walk away from their unhappy marriages and move their children into a share house in Sydney. Against a backdrop of 1970s misogyny Libby, Anna and Carol find new ways to navigate motherhood and friendship. In this lighthearted novel, Laura Bloom rejects the traditional rom-com, opting to instead follow a more contemporary journey of self-reckoning as each of the women discovers who they are when they are no longer defined completely by ‘wife’ or ‘mother’. The narrative moves quickly—on the same night that Carol decides to leave her threatening, overbearing husband, Anna discovers that hers is gay and Libby has a lightning-fast confrontation with her own marital dissatisfaction that also sees her running out the door. This narrative construct aside, it is refreshing to see who these women become in each other’s presence. The changes in the way they see each other and themselves will be familiar to all who have found comfort and belonging in the presence of a chosen family rather than a prescribed one. The subplot involving the shifting friendships between their children adds a level of complexity to Libby, Anna and Carol’s choices and interactions with each other, although their individual stories perhaps need more room to play out. At times Bloom’s observations about the way that wives and mothers were and are treated by society are articulated in a way that reads too contemporary for the novel’s 70s setting, but these observations are also a large part of the book’s appeal. Fans of Liane Moriarty will enjoy this friendship-driven romp. (Books and Publishing, 28 October 2020)
The speechwriter / Martin McKenzie-Murray
Martin McKenzie-Murray’s fiction debut is a fun but sometimes frustrating book that nevertheless delivers plenty of laughs along the way. The story is told by Toby—an aspiring speechwriter whose hyper-ambition blinds him to good sense—as he recounts to his prison cellmate, Gary, his career trajectory from state politics to a federal department in Canberra and ultimately the Prime Minister’s office. The finer plot points of Toby’s rise and fall involve a series of surreal and wacky events that are sometimes too out-there, even for the absurdist world of the book, but McKenzie-Murray otherwise strikes a very readable and fast-paced mix of satire, action and drama. Gary—who comes from a different station in life to Toby—gives semi-regular interruptions to remind the reader of Toby’s fate and hint at how his stay in Canberra is to end. McKenzie-Murray has a good ear for snappy, comedic dialogue and there are lots of strong, surprising jokes throughout, but also some eye-rolls— not all of them land. Overall, he has created an entertaining story of folly set in a unique, exaggerated world of backroom politics. The Speechwriter will most likely appeal to readers of Steve Toltz, as well as fans of TV comedies like Veep and Utopia. (Book and Publishing, December 2020)
Born into this / Adam Thompson
This is an interesting collection of short stories from an Indigenous writer from Tasmania. Thompson has worked for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre caring for Aboriginal land and heritage, working to preserve his community’s history. This collection speaks to the depth of his knowledge of his people and their experiences and feelings. All the 16 stories revolve around Indigenous characters with themes of racism, identity, and their loss of heritage. A group of young boys travel from the city on a survival camp when Uncle Ben’s ‘tin’ with his ‘medication’ goes missing. Uncle Ben is resentful of what he sees as the smart-ass teacher, so organised and calm. He doesn’t want the teacher here. He doesn’t belong. The teacher informs Ben that the boys are running out of water. It’s Ben’s job to make sure they don’t die of thirst, but he wants his tin back. Another story tells us about Jack, who lives alone in a hut on Badger Island. ‘After years on the island, Jack has been cleansed of the pollutants that dulled his senses for much of his earlier life.’ He has found a family connection to the island and a path out of despair. Then one day his Uncle Donnie arrives unannounced. Thompson has a strong authenticity to his writing. It’s like tough love, forcing you to look on unflinchingly at times. Although the characters are fictional, they feel real to the reader, and that you are peering into the true lives of these Indigenous people. A strong debut. (Good Reading Magazine, March 2021)
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HISTORICAL FICTION
| Goldsworthy, Adrian | Beat the drums slowly |
| Jago, Lucy | A net for small fishes |
| Mosse, Kate | The city of tears |
A net for small fishes / Lucy Jago
Anne Turner is a clever woman, skilled with a needle and former wife to a respected doctor. She is summoned to the Court of James I of England, to assist a distraught young woman, Francis (known as Frankie) the Countess of Essex, who is trapped in a brutal and unhappy marriage, but who must appear presentable at Court for all to see. And so begins an unlikely friendship between the two women. After the death of her husband, Anne is struggling with her fall in circumstances. Frankie’s was an arranged marriage, and she is desperate to either bear her husband an heir or be rid of him. In her unhappiness she forms an attachment to the King’s favourite, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset. Eventually Frankie secures an annulment and the way seems clear for her to marry Carr, although his friend Thomas Overbury warns against it. Frankie’s powerful family use their influence with the King to have Overbury imprisoned in the Tower. When Overbury dies suddenly while imprisoned it is determined he had been poisoned. Anne and Frankie are the suspects. This is a very interesting story of a period in history, and of one of those great scandals that has faded as time has passed. Anne and Frankie are both interesting, well-developed characters, and the Jacobean Court with its politics and manoeuvring for power is a major character itself. (Good Reading Magazine, February 2021)
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MYSTERY
| Abe, Kobo | The ruined map |
| Ayatsuji, Yukito | The Decagon House murders |
| Bakkeid, Heine T. | Scatter her ashes |
| Barclay, Linwood | Find you first |
| Bauer, Belinda | Exit |
| Brody, Frances | The body on the train |
| Drysdale, Pip | The Paris affair |
| Engberg, Katrine | The tenant |
| Fennell, David | The art of death |
| Gardner, Lisa | Before she disappeared |
| Griffiths, Elly | The night hawks |
| Herron, Mick | Slough House |
| Kellerman, Jonathan | Serpentine |
| Pearse, Sarah | The sanatorium |
| Preston, Douglas | The scorpion’s tail |
| Qiu, Xiaolong | Hold your breath, China |
| Reynolds, Allie | Shiver |
| Robb, J. D. | Faithless in death |
| Singh, Nalini | Quiet in her bones |
| Stabenow, Dana | Spoils of the dead |
| Sten, Viveca | In bad company |
| Yeowart, Lyn | The silent listener |
| Turner, A. K. | Body language |
| Young, David | The Stasi game |
The decagon house murders / Yukito Ayatsuji
First published in 1987, Ayatsuji’s brilliant and richly atmospheric puzzle will appeal to fans of golden age whodunits. Six months after the bodies of architect Nakamura Seiji, his wife, and two servants were found in the burnt remains of a house on isolated Tsunojima, a small island off the coast of Japan, seven members of the Kyoto University Mystery Club decide to visit Tsunojima. They are to reside for a week in the bizarrely constructed Decagon House, where everything seems to have 10 sides and where they soon learn that a killer is targeting them. The tension in this sophisticated homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is expertly heightened by a parallel plot set on the mainland, where two other members of the Kyoto society have received threatening letters, ostensibly from the dead Seiji. As in the best fair-play mysteries, every word counts, leading up to a jaw-dropping but logical reveal. (Publishers Weekly, July 2015)
Slough house / Mick Herron
As if its tendency to self-destruct weren’t efficient enough, the British establishment’s last depository for spies too old, compromised, or incompetent to defend queen and country is under attack from every side. While the slow horses of Slough House gradually remove themselves from further embarrassment by dying off, their personal information is being methodically purged from government computers, except for the names and addresses that allow the survivors to keep getting paid. At the same time, someone who doesn’t think they’re dying fast enough has slimmed their rolls by executing veteran members Kay White and Struan Loy, reportedly as revenge for the killing of a murderous Russian agent on the orders of Diana Taverner, the First Chair at Regent’s Park. In the face of slashed budgets, power-hungry politician Peter Judd offers Slough House an exemption from the funding cuts, but there’s a catch: He expects them to invite millionaire news princeling Damien Cantor to a closer relationship than Jackson Lamb or any of his loyalists is comfortable with. Oh, and the money men Judd maintains he speaks for would “like you to ease off on your infiltration of the Yellow Vest movement.” Just asking, of course, he smoothly assures Diana. One way or the other, it seems certain that somebody—the Russians, the accountants, the press, the Grim Reaper—is coming for regulars Louisa Guy, River Cartwright, Lech Wicinski, and Catherine Standish—not to mention Shirley Dander, whose partners have already displayed a disconcerting habit of dying in harness. Once again, Herron captures the dramedy of the battle between spies and bureaucrats better than anyone else on either side. (Kirkus Reviews, 1 December 2020)
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NON FICTION
| Brand, Arthur | Hitler’s horses | 363.259628 BRAN |
| Hamilton, Maggie | When we become strangers | 158.2 HAMI |
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
| Cornwell, Patricia Daniels | Spin |
| Miller, Derek B. | Radio life |
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New additions to eBooks at SMSA
| Biography | Russell, Vanessa | The world is not big enough |
| General novels | Frazier, Jean Kyoung | Pizza girl |
| General novels | Hawkins, Kelly | Other people’s houses |
| General novels | Silvey, Craig | Honeybee |
| General novels | Washington, Brian | Memorial |
| Historical fiction | Ashman, A. K. | The wrath of Boudicca |
| Mystery | Adolfsson, Maria | Fatal isles |
| Mystery | Flower, Amanda | Farm to trouble |
| Mystery | Osmand, Richard | The Thursday Murder Club |
| Mystery | Shepherd-Robinson, Laura | Daughters of night |
Pizza girl / Jean Kyoung Frazier
In Frazier’s playful and unflinching debut, a pregnant 18-year-old pizza delivery driver dreams of a new life. The unnamed narrator, overwhelmed by anxiety about her pregnancy and her family, wants out of the house she grew up in, where she lives with her mother and her boyfriend, Billy, in suburban L.A. Enter Jenny Hauser, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mother who orders a large with pepperoni and pickles for her fussy son. From the moment Jenny opens her door, the narrator nurses a dream of escaping with her (“I wanted to take her hand and invite her to come with me whenever I ran away”). The narrator comes to befriend Jenny and learns she is unhappy in her marriage; thinking of how her dead father abused her mother, she assumes Jenny is abused as well. At home, the narrator turns cold toward Billy and her mother, and embraces her isolation the way her deceased abusive father once did, by turning to alcohol. Her frequent intoxication colors her view of her relationship with Jenny, whom she manages to kiss once and makes a valiant but dangerous and unnecessary effort to rescue. Frazier’s characters are raw and her dialogue startlingly observant (“The environment can suck a dick—I’m driving my F-150 to work again,” one regular tells her). This infectious evocation of a young woman’s slackerdom will appeal to fans of Halle Butler and Ottessa Moshfegh, and will make it difficult not to root for the troubled and spirited pizza girl. (Publishes Weekly, 17 February 2020)
Memorial / Brian Washington
In Washington’s debut novel (after the collection Lot), the fractures in a couple’s relationship span from Houston, Tex., to Osaka, Japan. Ben, a day care teacher, lives with his cook boyfriend, Mike, in Houston’s slowly gentrifying Third Ward. When Mike’s mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Houston from Japan with plans to stay at Ben and Mike’s place, awkwardness ensues. Mike has just left for Osaka, to reconnect with his absent and now terminally ill father, and put Ben in charge of entertaining Mitsuko until he gets back. Ben eventually adjusts to having her around, just as he must navigate his changing relationship with his black middle-class family, who have always shied away from Ben’s HIV-positive status and talked around his father’s drinking. Meanwhile, in Osaka, Mike has found his father, Eiju, at the bar he owns, where Eiju has a dedicated assistant and crowd of regulars who have no idea Eiju’s dying or that he has a son. Mike starts working at the bar so he can spend Eiju’s final days with him. Though Mike still grapples with how to feel about Eiju, who made his biggest impact on Mike’s life by abandoning the family, father and son are able to build a tentative relationship. Tender, funny, and heartbreaking, this tale of family, food (Mike cooks for their Venezuelan neighbors; Mitsuko makes Ben congee), and growing apart feels intimate and expansive at the same time. Washington shows readers more of the unforgettable Houston he introduced in his stories, and comfortably expands his range into the setting of Osaka, applying nuance in equal measure to his characters and the places they’re tied to. (Publishers Weekly, 15 June 2020)
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AUDIOBOOKS
| General novels | Cambron, Kristy | The Paris dressmaker |
| General novels | Kehlmann | You should have left |
| General novels | Philyaw, Deesha | The secret lives of church ladies |
| Mystery | Blacke, Olivia | Killer content |
| Mystery | Castle, Anne | Publish and perish |
| Mystery | Harrison, Helen | An artful corpse |
| Mystery | Parker, Robert B. | Someone to watch over me |
| Mystery | Rose, Jeneva | The perfect marriage |
| Mystery | Tyson, Wendy | Ripe for vengeance |
| Romance | Quinn, Julie | An offer from a gentleman |
Killer content / Olive Blacke
Blacke’s sprightly debut and series launch introduces Odessa Dean, a naive 20-something from Louisiana who loves true crime podcasts. Odessa is thrilled to be apartment and cat sitting for her world-traveling aunt in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and working at Untapped Books and Cafe. While posting an online ad for the cafe, Odessa watches a livestream video of a flash mob dancing at nearby Domino Park. The crowd is having a great time—until a woman on an overhead walkway suddenly falls to her death on camera. Odessa is horrified to recognize the woman as her coworker, Bethany Kostolus. The police rule the death an accident, but Odessa is sure Bethany was murdered. Cozy fans will enjoy seeing Brooklyn (and Brooklynites) through spunky outsider Odessa’s eyes as she gathers the evidence to prove it. Distinctive characters enhance the lively plot. Blacke is off to a promising start. (Publishers Weekly, 30 November 2020)
The Paris dressmaker / Kristy Cambron
Woven within this beautiful historical tapestry of WWII from Cambron (The Painted Castle) is the stark reminder to keep friends close and enemies closer. Early in the occupation of Paris, Lila de Laurent, a former dressmaker for the House of Chanel, is on the run from the Nazis and intent on carrying out a mission for the resistance. She hopes stowing away in a bakery truck will allow her to evade capture—but she’s soon discovered by the driver, who turns out to be the Jewish man she once loved and believed to be dead. Now they must help each other survive. Later in the war, Sandrine Paquet will do whatever it takes to keep her family safe while her beloved husband is away at war—even if it means working for the Nazis to catalog their stolen art. But when a beautiful gown with a cryptic message sewn into the lining arrives for her, she too is plunged into the resistance. Based on true events, this exquisite tale impresses with its historical and emotional authenticity. Historical fiction fans won’t want to miss this. (Publishers Weekly, 15 November 2020)
The secret lives of Church ladies / Deesha Philyaw
Philyaw’s triumphant debut collection follows a series of Southern black women as they struggle for self-determination. In “Eula,” 40-year-old Caroletta meets her childhood friend and fellow church member Eula in a motel room to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Both single ladies have yet to find what they need from men, and one still considers herself a virgin despite the two of them having had trysts for decades. That night, they preserve a semblance of respectability (“You outdid yourself,” Eula tells Caroletta, about a potato salad she’d made), while licking sparkling wine from one another. In “Peach Cobbler,” Olivia recounts her mother’s affair with a pastor who would come to the house when Olivia was five and whom she equated with God (“God was an old fat man, like a Black Santa, and I imagined my mother’s peach cobbler contributing to his girth”). While Philyaw occasionally gets ahead of herself, as in “Jael,” about a teenage girl who takes revenge on a 35-year-old sexual predator (the slim story loses power from its multiple point-of-view shifts), for the most part she soars, notably in “How to Make Love to a Physicist,” about a woman’s liberation from generations of body hatred. Philyaw’s stories inform and build on one another, turning her characters’ private struggles into a beautiful chorus. (Publishers Weekly, 22 June 2020)
An offer from a gentleman / Julie Quinn
A retelling of the classic fairytale, this Regency romance gets off to a slow start as Quinn (The Viscount Who Loved Me) introduces a troupe of stock characters—the wicked stepmother, aloof stepsister and warm-hearted but weak younger stepsister. Thankfully, Quinn doesn’t make her Cinderella suffer these tired old relations for long. After her stunning debut at the Bridgerton masked ball and a heady encounter with handsome Benedict Bridgerton, Sophie Beckett, the bastard daughter of an earl, is summarily ousted from her home when her stepmother discovers that Sophie had attended the masquerade. Three years later, Sophie, now a housemaid, is rescued from her new employer’s sex-crazed son by none other than her long-lost “prince.” Although Benedict is attracted to Sophie and agrees to find her a position as a servant in his mother’s house, he fails to recognize her from their encounter at the ball. A charming romance develops as Benedict tries to convince Sophie to become his mistress and Sophie refuses to succumb to his dangerously seductive offer. Quinn’s narrative truly blossoms once she departs from the fairytale’s traditional plot line. With its storybook ending and lovable characters, this bedtime romance is certain to satisfy. (Publishers Weekly, 14 May 2001)
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New Books – March 2021
We hope you enjoy them!
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- Books remain listed as “New Books” for two months.
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