New books for August

Once again I've let my "fingers do the walking" on the computer keyboard and have ordered all my books on-line from Dymocks and Amazons. Normally I go to at least three different places in search of the specials (provided those books have made my "long list") but this year I've got the books on my list and they'll be delivered to my door! I hope you will enjoy them.

Red Queen by H. M. Brown – two young men retreat to their family cabin in the Australian wilderness to escape a virus-ravaged world. A young woman finds them and they begin a desperate fight to survive.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey - Winner of the 2009 Australian Independent Booksellers Indie Award. Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Jasper begs for his help and Charlie steals into the night by his side and bears witness to a horrible discovery.

Serena by Ron Rash - in 1929 and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man. When Serena learns that she will never bear a child , she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. A novel that tells of love both honoured and betrayed.

Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran - An English accountant and his two wives are the subject of this intriguing and evocative debut novel based on a real-life 19th-century California bigamy case. A loving husband and attentive father, Henry Oades assures his wife, Margaret, that his posting to New Zealand will be temporary and the family makes the difficult journey but tragedy strikes. Convinced his family is dead, Henry relocates to California and marries Nancy, a sad 20-year-old pregnant widow. When Margaret and the children escape, eventually making their way to California and Henry's doorstep, he does the decent thing by being a husband to both wives and father to all their offspring. It is the two women bonding that give the book its heart.

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell - A story of love and motherhood. When the bohemian, sophisticated Innes Kent turns up by chance on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life for herself. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood, which don't tally with his parents' version of events. As Ted begins to search for answers, so an extraordinary portrait of two women is revealed, separated by fifty years, but connected in ways that neither could ever have expected.

Wanting by Richard Flanagan - Flanagan follows The Unknown Terrorist with an intricate exploration of civility and savagery that hinges on two famous 19th-century Englishmen: Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin and Charles Dickens. In 1839 Tasmania, a tribe of Aboriginals are in the Van Diemen's Land penal colony, soon to be governed by Franklin and his wife, Lady Jane. The Franklins adopt a native girl, Mathinna, whom Lady Jane hopes to use as proof that civility lies in all human beings, even savages. The interlaced stories focus on conquering the yearning that exists both in the Aboriginals and the noble English gentlemen.

Thereby Hangs a Tail by Spencer Quin - Chet, the crime-fighting dog narrates the story. Chet’s owner, private investigator Bernie Little, is down on his financial luck and looking into threats against a pampered celebrity show dog named Princess. Before long, Princess and her wealthy, high-maintenance owner are abducted, along with the newspaper reporter who was covering the case. The story is both humorous and suspenseful while delivering a proper, satisfying whodunit.

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke - This extraordinary debut focuses on Jay Porter, a black lawyer in Houston struggling to become upwardly mobile while weighed down by a past as a civil rights worker who was betrayed and disillusioned. His moral fiber is put to the test when he's witness to a murder that eventually places him and his pregnant wife in jeopardy. It's a good thriller setup.

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon - The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways--and with unexpected consequences. The book is a literary masterwork with the momentum of a thriller, an unforgettable novel in which pasts are invented and reinvented and the future is both seductively uncharted and perilously unmoored.

Follow the links to find out more about these books.