Top picks for book clubs this month
Australian fiction | Compassion by Julie Janson
From the acclaimed author of the Miles Franklin longlisted Madukka: The River Serpent and the Barbara Jefferis Award shortlisted Benevolence, Compassion continues Julie Janson’s emotional and intense literary exploration of the complex and dangerous lives of Aboriginal women during the 1800s in colonial New South Wales, which she began in Benevolence as a counter narrative to colonial history in Australian literature.
Compassion is the dramatised life story of one of Julie Janson’s ancestors who went on trial for stealing livestock in New South Wales, and it is an exciting and violent story of anti-colonial revenge and roaming adventure. A gripping fictive account of Aboriginal life in the 1800s, Compassion follows the life of Duringah, AKA Nell James, the outlaw daughter of the Darug hero of Benevolence, Muraging.
International fiction | Clear by Carys Davies
1843. On a remote Scottish island, Ivar, the sole occupant, leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach below the cliffs. The newcomer is John Ferguson, an impoverished church minister sent to evict Ivar and turn the island into grazing land for sheep. Unaware of the stranger's intentions, Ivar takes him into his home, and in spite of the two men having no common language, a fragile bond begins to form between them. Meanwhile on the mainland, John's wife Mary anxiously awaits news of his mission.
Against the rugged backdrop of this faraway spot beyond Shetland, Carys Davies's intimate drama unfolds with tension and tenderness: a touching and crystalline study of ordinary people buffeted by history and a powerful exploration of the distances and connections between us. Perfectly structured and surprising at every turn, Clear is a marvel of storytelling, an exquisite short novel by a master of the form.
Crime fiction | The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen
Reporter Anne Lemire writes the Rumor Clinic, a newspaper column that disproves the many harmful rumors floating around town, some of them spread by Axis spies and others just gossip mixed with fear and ignorance. Tired of chasing silly rumors, she wants to write about something bigger.
Special Agent Devon Mulvey, one of the few Catholics at the FBI, spends his weekdays preventing industrial sabotage and his Sundays spying on clerics with suspect loyalties – and he spends his evenings wooing the many lonely women whose husbands are off at war.
When Anne's story about Nazi propaganda intersects with Devon's investigation into the death of a factory worker, the two are led down a dangerous trail of espionage, organized crime, and domestic fascism - one that implicates their own tangled pasts and threatens to engulf the city in violence.
Romance fiction | The Other Bridget by Rachael Johns
Named after a famous fictional character, librarian Bridget Jones was raised on a remote cattle station, with only her mother's romance novels for company. Now living alone in Fremantle, Bridget is a hopeless romantic. She also believes that anyone who doesn't like reading just hasn't met the right book yet, and that connecting books to their readers is her superpower. If only her love life was that easy.
When handsome Italian barista Fabio progresses from flirting with love hearts on her coffee foam to joining the book club she runs at her library, Bridget prays her romance 'curse' won't ruin things. But it's the attention of her cranky neighbour Sully that seems to be the major obstacle in her life. Why is he going to so much effort to get under her skin?
With the help of her close friends and the colourful characters who frequent her library, Bridget decides to put both men to the test.
Sci-fi, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction | Empire of the Damned (Empire of the Vampire, Book 2) by Jay Kristoff
Gabriel de León has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost. After turning his back on his silversaint brothers once and for all, Gabriel and the Grail set out to learn the truth of how Daysdeath might finally be undone.
But the last silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by children of the Forever King, drawn into wars and webs centuries in the weaving, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the truth of the Grail revealed. A truth that may be too awful for any to imagine.
Debut fiction | Lead Us Not by Abbey Lay
Millie is in her final year at a Catholic girls' school, subdued by the conformity of her life and her parents' quiet pain. But when her schoolmate Olive moves in next door, it marks the beginning of an intoxicating friendship that changes everything. In all the ways Millie feels unsure and half-formed, Olive, an aspiring actor from a devoutly Catholic family, seems at ease with her place in the world.
On the precipice of freedom, the two young women seize nights out and a school retreat as opportunities to further their own increasingly uncertain ends. Olive urges Millie on in her sexual encounters, but Millie is only becoming more consumed by Olive. That makes it all the more excruciating when Olive cuts off all contact. Millie cannot understand what's changed between them. Has she missed something?
LGBTQIA+ | Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly
Siblings Greta and Valdin have, perhaps, too much in common. They're flatmates, beholden to the same near-unpronounceable surname, and both make questionable choices when it comes to love.
Valdin is in love with his ex-boyfriend Xabi, who left the country because he thought he was making Valdin sad. Greta is in love with fellow English tutor Holly, who appears to be using her for admin support. But perhaps all is not lost. Valdin is coming to realize that he might not be so unlovable, and Greta, that she might be worth more than the papers she can mark.
Helping the siblings navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and the tendency of their love interests to flee, is the Vladisavljevic family – Maori-Russian-Catalonian, and as passionate as they are eccentric.
Young Adult | I Hope This Doesn't Find You by Ann Liang
Sadie Wen is perfect on paper – school captain, valedictorian, and a 'pleasure to have in class.' It's not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times – she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She'd never send them of course – she'd rather die than hurt anyone's feelings – but it's a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie's work.
Sadie doesn't have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them ... that is, until they're accidentally sent out. Overnight, Sadie's carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It's her worst nightmare – now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they're not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there's one person growing to appreciate the "real" Sadie – Julius, the only boy she's sworn to hate.
