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
This Kingdom of Dust by David Dyer
The whole world has just watched Neil and Buzz walk on the Moon. Now they are struck by terror: the lunar module's engine has failed. There is no back-up, no other way off the surface. If the astronauts can't fix the problem, they'll slowly run out of oxygen and die. This Kingdom of Dust explores this harrowing scenario through the intertwined narratives of three distinct voices: Buzz on the Moon, his wife Joan back on Earth, and Aquarius, the journalist compelled to craft a story he doesn't want to write.
Marooned, Buzz confronts his fate with a mix of dread and awe. On Earth, Joan wrestles with grief and sacrifice against the backdrop of 1960s America – a nation riven by war and seismic social change. Caught between professional duty and personal turmoil, Aquarius soon discovers that he will need all his skill to capture this unfolding drama, and all his courage to follow it through to its breathtaking conclusion.
Read our staff review here.
International fiction
She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark
A teenager longs for perfect skin. A scientist tends to fragile alien flora. A young man takes the night into his own hands. Each of these characters has a desperate desire. Can any of them be sated?
Unsettling, revelatory, and laced with her signature dark humour, Eliza Clark's debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.
Read our staff review here.
Crime fiction
Hotel Lucky Seven by Kotaro Isaka & Brian Bergstrom (trans.)
A luxury hotel full of assassins – what could go wrong?
Nanao 'the unluckiest assassin in the world' has been hired to deliver a birthday present to a guest at a luxury Tokyo Hotel. It seems like a simple assignment but by the time he leaves the guest's room one man is dead and more will soon follow. As events spiral out of control as it becomes clear several different killers, with varying missions, are all taking a stay in the hotel at the same time. And they're all particularly interested in a young woman with a photographic memory, hiding out on one of the twenty floors.
Will Nanao find the truth about what's going on? And will he check out alive?
Read our staff review here.
Biography
Australian Gospel by Lech Blaine
Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians – especially their 'foul language, reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'.
Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, rugby-league-obsessed home.
There's just one problem. The Blaines are foster parents to three of the Shelleys' children, who were removed from Michael and Mary as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.
Australian Gospel is a family saga like no other – heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.
Read our staff review here.
Romance fiction
The Striker by Ana Huang
Asher Donovan is a living legend – the darling of the Premier League, the (arguably) greatest footballer in the world.
But his reckless antics and recent team transfer have caused much controversy, and when his feud with his rival-turned-teammate costs them a championship, they're forced to 'bond' during off-season cross-training.
Surviving the summer shouldn't be hard . . . until Asher meets their new trainer. She's beautiful, talented, and no matter how hard he tries, he can't take his mind off her.
The only problem? She's his rival's sister – and completely off limits.
Sci-fi, fantasy & speculative fiction
The Great Library of Tomorrow by Rosalia Aguilar Solace
Helia has served for centuries as the Sage of Hope for the Great Library of Tomorrow. She is one of the chosen few who embody and protect the values of humanity across the realms of Paperworld. Helia’s hope is tested when she and her partner Xavier, the Sage of Truth, are attacked in a famous Rose Garden by a deadly figure known as the Ash Man. With the garden destroyed and its dragon protector missing, Xavier sacrifices his life so that Helia can return home to warn the other Sages.
Debut fiction
Invisible Kitties by Yu Yoyo & Jeremy Tiang (trans.)
Every cat contains multitudes . . .
When a young couple accidentally comes into possession of a playful kitten, their daily routine (and cramped apartment) is turned upside down. Soon they find their existence forever altered.
Charting the couple’s ever-evolving relationship with cats – some they live with, others who exist only in their imagination – Invisible Kitties is a meditation on the quiet moments of everyday life and a celebration of cats in all their many forms.
LGBTQIA+
Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk & Heather Cleary (trans.)
In the nineteenth century, a vampire arrives from Europe to the coast of Buenos Aires, on the run from the Church. She must adapt, intermingle with humans, and, most importantly, be discreet.
In present-day Buenos Aires, a woman finds herself at an impasse as she grapples with her mother's terminal illness and her own relationship with motherhood. When she first encounters the vampire in a cemetery, something ignites within the two women - and they cross a threshold from which there's no turning back.
With echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Thirst plays with the boundaries of genre while exploring the limits of female agency, the consuming power of desire, and the fragile vitality of even the most immortal of creatures.
Read our staff review here.
Young adult fiction
Comes the Night by Isobelle Carmody
Will lives with his father in a future domed Canberra where citizens are safe from extreme weather events, dangerous solar radiation and civil unrest. He does not question his carefully controlled existence until the recurrence of an old nightmare propels him on a dangerous quest.
Gradually Will discovers his dreams hold cryptic clues that lead him into a shadowy alternate dimension. Here he must grapple with dark forces that operate in both worlds, with the help of his best friend Ender, her brilliant but difficult twin sister Magda, and a mysterious gift from his uncle.
Read our review here.