Top picks for book clubs this month
Looking for something juicy to discuss in your book club? Try one of these new releases, chosen by our booksellers to appeal to a wide range of readers and provide plenty to talk about.
Australian fiction
Woo Woo by Ella Baxter
Sabine is having a moment. Her new exhibition, Fuck You, Help Me, is opening soon and, as her gallerist says, 'Hell is an artist three days before their exhibition opens.' But it's not only this coming milestone that is causing Sabine to melt down.
She is being stalked. As exhibition day draws closer, so too does the man who has been watching her. As his approaches become more overt and threatening, Sabine's fear amplifies and transforms into something feral and primal. And then things start to get really strange.
Read our staff review here.
International fiction
The Horse by Willy Vlautin
'There's a horse', he whispered. 'An old horse that's standing in front of my house. He's blind and he won't eat and I don't know what to do.'
65-year-old Al Ward is several years into an isolated stint living on old mining land in Nevada left to him by his great uncle. One morning, the horse arrives outside his home, seemingly unable to feed itself or stay safe from coyote attacks. 6000 feet up, 30 miles from the nearest town and broken by alcoholism and anxiety, Al must decide what to do. Intercut with Al's present-day story are episodes from his long life as a songwriter and guitarist. Beginning in Reno, we follow his chequered career as a touring musician, struggling to make ends meet and to survive the reality of a life devoid of the glitz and glamour of mainstream success.
Read our staff review here.
Crime fiction
Liars by James O'Loghlin
Handywoman Barb Young has lived in the sleepy coastal town of Bullford Point for over fifty years – and frankly, in that time, not much has happened, unless you count that business where a bush turkey managed to board the ferry a couple of years ago. When Joe Griffiths returns from Sydney after six years of drug addiction, jail and, eventually, rehab, Barb offers him a job, hoping to help him turn his life around. However, when another new resident of Bullford Point is murdered, Joe becomes the prime suspect.
Barb thinks the police have got it wrong, but the more she tries to find the truth and clear Joe's name, the more confusing things become. Is the murder connected to the developers circling the waterfront home Joe inherited from his parents? Or to the true crime podcast he has been making about the death of his ex-girlfriend? And what was the information the murdered woman had been trying to horse-trade with police?
Read our staff review here.
Biography
Running with Pirates by Kári Gíslason
At the age of eighteen, Kari Gislason arrives on the island of Corfu after a life-altering encounter with his father in Iceland. Looking for adventure, he decides to stay after meeting 'the Pirate', a mysterious Greek stranger who offers him work - only to find himself eventually fleeing the island, leaving behind a debt he promises to repay.
Three decades later, as a father of two teenage sons, he returns to Corfu with his family. As he revisits his memories of the island, he begins to understand that this place has shaped the adult he has become, and that the inevitable letting go of his own children lies ahead.
Read our staff review here.
Romance fiction
Love Unleashed by Melanie Saward
When Bigambul woman Brynn Wallace leaves Brisbane to pursue her dreams in New York City, she imagines herself landing a fabulous career at a publishing house, not working in a doggy daycare with a boss from hell. Yet good things are always possible in New York, especially when you believe in them hard enough. And Brynn has a collection of NYC missions to set her on her way.
When she meets a handsome dog-dad who happens to be a literary editor she hopes her dreams will finally come true . . .
Sci-Fi, fantasy & speculative fiction
The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
The Carryx has waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy in its conflict with an ancient and deathless enemy. When they descend on the isolated world of Anjiin, the human population is abased, slaughtered and put in chains. The brightest are abducted and join prisoners from a thousand other species.
Dafyd Alkhor is captured along with his team. Unknowingly his insight and skills will be the key to seeing past their captors’ terrifying agenda. This is where his story begins.
Debut fiction
All the Missing Children by Zahid Gamielden
Ilene is struggling to survive and desperate to reconnect with her children, Jack and Lonnie, after a near-fatal tragedy. But her children vanish, setting off a chain reaction within the community. Suspended detective Omar helps with the investigation but keeps getting pulled away by a cold case. Benji, a recovering addict has his life upended by a menacing threat, and Nera wants to find who killed one of her animals. In this gripping tale of human frailty, each character must confront what really happened to Jack and Lonnie.
LGBTQIA+
Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn
Having recently moved both herself and her formidable perfume bottle collection into a tiny bungalow in Los Angeles, mid-list author Astrid Dahl finds herself back in the Zoom writer’s group she cofounded, Sapphic Scribes, after an incident that leaves her and her career lightly canceled. But she temporarily forgets all that by throwing herself into a few sexy distractions – like Ivy, a grad student researching 1950s lesbian pulp who smells like metallic orchids, or her new neighbor, Penelope, who smells like patchouli.
Penelope, a painter living off Urban Outfitters settlement money, immediately ingratiates herself in Astrid’s life, bonding with her best friends and family, just as Astrid and Ivy begin to date in person. Astrid feels judged and threatened by Penelope but also finds her irresistibly sexy. When Astrid receives an unexpected call from her agent, she finally has a chance to resurrect her waning career. But the pressure causes Astrid’s worst vice to rear its head.
Read our staff review here.
Young Adult fiction
The Skin I'm In by Steph Tisdell
Layla is in her final year of school. It's the last year to make sure that the next major phase of her life begins correctly, because she's got big plans. All Layla wants to do is fit in and be a normal teenager but when her troubled cousin Marley comes to stay, he unwittingly challenges everything she thought she was. Plus she's trying to work out what it means to be Indigenous, she's falling in love and her best friend Amy has a new best friend.
Steph Tisdell's words sparkle with humour, depth and authenticity in this extraordinary debut novel which explores cultural and personal expectations, and responsibilities.
Read our staff review here.
