It is my turn to host Book Club in June so I bought the new books from Dymocks on-line. This year I went through my newspaper cuttings to produce a "long list"
of 20 which was drastically reduced to six. I hope we will enjoy them.
Sedition by Katharine Grant is set in 1794 London. Motherless Alathea Sawneyford, her charms grown
disturbing as she rebels against her father, has made the city's
streets her own, while Annie Cantabile is constrained, by her own
disfigurement and her father, to his pianoforte workshop under the
shadow of Tyburn gibbet. Fierce and bawdy,
uproarious and exquisite, Sedition takes its plot at a racing gallop:
bold, beautiful and captivating, it is a narrative masterpiece.
The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell tells the story of an explosion in a Missouri dance hall killed
forty-two people in 1929. Who was to blame? Alma
Dunahew, whose scandalous younger sister was among the dead, believes
the answer lies in a dangerous love affair, but no one will listen to a
maid from the wrong side of the tracks. It is only decades later that
her grandson hears her version of events - and must decide if it is the
right one.
Mr Wigg by Inga Simpson is set in 1971, not far from the stone-fruit capital of New South Wales, where Mr Wigg lives on what's left of the family farm. He spends his time working in the orchard, cooking and preserving his produce and, when it's on, watching the cricket. It's a full life but things are changing.
Mr Wigg by Inga Simpson is set in 1971, not far from the stone-fruit capital of New South Wales, where Mr Wigg lives on what's left of the family farm. He spends his time working in the orchard, cooking and preserving his produce and, when it's on, watching the cricket. It's a full life but things are changing.
Asylum by John Harwood tells of a young woman who wakes in a strange bed beneath coarse sheets. Doctor Maynard Straker steps into the room, and speaks. 'Have no fear,
Miss Ashton. I am entirely at your service.' But this is not her name.
And she should not be here - in the Asylum. So begins
a gothic mystery of high suspense and terror, as a lone woman, held
against her will, must delve as deeply as she can into the void of her
memory to uncover the story that will free her.
The Memory Trap by Andrea Goldsmith is a novel about memory, music, friendship, family rifts and
reconciliation. This is an intelligent, compelling read set in
Melbourne. Nina Jameson, an international consultant on memorial
projects based in London, has been happily married to Daniel for twelve
years. When her life falls apart she accepts a job in her hometown of
Melbourne. A rich and compelling story of marriage, music, the illusions of love
and the deceits of memory, The Memory Trap's characters are real, flawed
and touchingly human.
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is set between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the
cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying
thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure
luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they
face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude? Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.
No comments:
Post a Comment