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Woollahra Libraries staff have created reading lists of eBooks, eAudiobooks and hard copies, by genre or occasion, available to borrow from our eCollection or off the shelf.

Staff Picks 2020

Fiction

Cherry Beach by Laura McPhee-Browne

Cherry Beach - Laura McPhee-Browne

Perfect. As though Sarah Winman and Sally Rooney got together and wrote a book just for me. A beautifully written coming of age novel about two young Aussies starting afresh in Canada. I laughed, I cried, it satisfied needs I didn’t know I had. 5 stars are not enough!

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Picked by Erin PH (Library Staff)

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the crawdads sing - Delia Owens

I read this book in less than a day! I stayed up to 11pm because I did not want to go to bed not knowing how it ended.

Kya is a vivid and original main character who is a fictional David Attenborough of the swamplands. I love that she learns from her wild surroundings and is self-sufficient from the land. She uses her skills to make money and turns her inquisitiveness of nature into a successful writing career as a published author, an amazing accomplishment for a girl that was left to completely educate herself.  It's an emotional storyline of solitude, racial and social division, ecology, murder and love.

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Picked by Lauren S (Library Staff)

The Wife and the Widow by Christian White

The Wife and the Widow - Christian White

I loved this book so much that I just want to immediately read it again so I can look out for all the clues I unwittingly missed the first time round.

There’s not a wasted word. The language is tight, carrying just the right level of detail to briefly sketch out the scene and the characters and nothing more - a perfect narrative voice for this type of book. But what sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go was the pacing - the gradual unraveling of the plot, pulling me in tighter and tighter as the twin storylines slowly converge into one sucker punch of an ending.

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Picked by Patra (Library Staff)

Step-by-step with Marley Spoon: top 100 rated recipes from the meal-kit experts by Olivia Andrews

Step-by-step with Marley Spoon - Olivia Andrews

Top 100 recipes from the meal kit delivery company Marley Spoon. If you are looking to expand your weeknight meal repertoire, these simple, easy to follow recipes will add flavour and variety. The chef in my household was stuck in a bit of a cooking rut until this book came along.

Highly recommended.

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Picked by Brigid (Library Staff)

Mark and Shark: Detectiving and Stuff by Olivia Andrews

Mark and Shark: Detectiving and Stuff - John Dougherty

Two friends set up their own agency - Mark does the detectiving and Shark does the stuff. When a polar bear asks them for help with her ice cream business they encounter a cranky penguin, a downcast horse, and a gang made up of a washing machine, a pygmy hippo, a forklift, and a vacuum cleaner. Can the mysterious unicorn save them? Will Shark ever eat enough ice-cream? I laughed and laughed, and the illustrations were perfection.

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Picked by Lauren C (Library Staff)

All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton - Trent Dalton

The first thing that attracted me to this book was its fantastic cover art but what is inside the book is just as magical. All Our Shimmering Skies was a joy to read and the pages turned effortlessly. I felt totally swept away into the Northern Territory with the characters. This was a truly wonderful and beautifully written book.

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Picked by Sarah-Jane (Library Staff)

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again - Elizabeth Strout

The prickly but loveable Olive Kitteridge is one of my favourite characters and it was wonderful to be reunited with her as she grows old in the town of Cosby, Maine. Elizabeth Strout is such a brilliant writer she makes the everyday, small town stories of Olive and those around her so rich and honest. I reread this book almost immediately.

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Picked by Janet DB (Library Staff)

Liberation by Imogen Kealey

Liberation - Imogen Kealey

This is a must read based on the true story of Nancy Wake (aka The White Mouse). She was a fearless and ruthless leader who earned the respect, sometimes grudgingly, of the troops. She was a spy, a wife, a leader and a thorn in the side of the Nazis. It is a riveting historical read that is at times nail biting. It is one that celebrates the achievements of an amazing woman.

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Picked by Elizabeth MO (Library Staff)

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Blacktop Wasteland - S.A. Cosby

This was a really thrilling page turner that I read straight through.

Set in Southern USA, Bug Montage is a skilled wheelman who tries to turn his life away from stealing cars and getaway driving and a family man running a car repair shop.

Deteriorating financial circumstances draw him in for one final job. This book features one of the best car chase scenes I have ever read, so cinematic that it will be a crime if someone doesn't make this into a movie soon. Perfect summer reading.

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Picked by Lauren (Library Staff)

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List - Lucy Foley

My new favourite author Lucy Foley released her third book this year called The Guest List and it is an easy to read, totally devourable murder/thriller set on a remote island. It's fast paced and keeps you guessing both the victim and murderer with a couple of plot twists thrown in too.

Anything set on a remote island with a bunch of suspects is right up my alley - thank you Agatha Christie for instilling that in me! Recommend for a "light murder" fan.

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Picked by Jamie (Library Staff)

Chasing the Light: how I fought my way into Hollywood, from the 1960s to Platoon by Oliver Stone

Chasing the Light: how I fought my way into Hollywood, from the 1960s to Platoon - Oliver Stone

The first autobiography from Oliver Stone – Hollywood’s most provocative, outspoken and controversial writer/director – is thankfully exactly what you would expect, pulling no punches and sparing nobody. Stone is scathing not just of the film industry, but of his own inadequacies as a human being, as he guides the reader on a strange tour through the earlier years of his life, taking in his unconventional childhood, a number of fractious relationships, the pain and confusion of his voluntary service through The Vietnam War, and the crazed production of his first movies up until his major breakthrough with the Oscar winning Platoon. An absorbing, amusing must-read for anyone with an interest in movies and how they are made.

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Picked by Erin F (Library Staff)

Weather by Jennifer Offill

Weather - Jennifer Offill

Weather by Jennifer Offill, a book that could possibly fit into your pocket, was my book of the year and not just because the main character was a librarian. I found it easy to read as it's written almost like a diary, filled with paragraphs about family, climate anxiety, religion, knee problems and other witty observations from the modern life. I recommend it to anyone who is too busy to follow a tight plot but would like to read something light but also thought provoking.

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Picked by Elo (Library Staff)

Remembrance Day

11 November - Lest We Forget

Fiction

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

Regeneration Trilogy - Pat Barker

At Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland 1917, army psychiatrist William Rivers treats shell-shocked soldiers before sending them back to the front. In his care are poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, as well as Billy Prior, who is only able to communicate by means of pencil and paper. Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road follow the stories of these men until the end of the Great War. Pat Barker's widely acclaimed and admired, The Regeneration Trilogy paints with moving detail the far-reaching consequences of a conflict which decimated a generation.

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Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman, arrives in Amiens in northern France in 1910 to stay with the Azaire family, and falls in love with unhappily married Isabelle. With the world on the brink of war, the relationship falters, and Stephen volunteers to fight on the Western Front. His love for Isabelle forever engraved on his heart, he experiences the unprecedented horrors of that conflict. Birdsong is an exceptionally moving and unforgettable portrait of the ruthlessness of war and the indestructability of love.

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Also available as an eBook on Overdrive

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

Frederic Henry is an American Lieutenant serving in the ambulance corps of the Italian army during the First World War. While stationed in northern Italy, he falls in love with Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. Theirs is an intense, tender and passionate love affair overshadowed by the war. Ernest Hemingway spares nothing in his denunciation of the horrors of combat, yet vividly depicts the courage shown by so many. In writing A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway was inspired by his own wartime experience as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. First published in 1929, the novel remains one of his finest works.

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Also available as an eBook on Bolinda

Nightingale by Fiona McIntosh

Nightingale - Fiona McIntosh

Amidst the carnage of Gallipoli, British nurse Claire Nightingale meets Australian Light Horseman Jamie Wren. Despite all odds, they fall deeply in love. Their flame burns bright and carries them through their darkest hours, even when war tears them apart. Jamie's chance meeting with Turkish soldier Acar Shahin on the blood-stained battlefield forges an unforgettable bond between the men. It also leaves a precious clue to Jamie's whereabouts for Claire to follow. Come peacetime, Claire's desperate search to find Jamie takes her all the way to Istanbul, and deep into the heart of Acar's family, where she attracts the unexpected attention of a charismatic and brooding scholar. In the name of forgiveness, cultures come together, enemies embrace and forbidden passions ignite -- but by the breathtaking conclusion, who will be left standing to capture Nurse Nightingale's heart?

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Non-Fiction

The Lost Boys: the Untold Stories of the Under-age Soldiers who Fought in the First World War by Paul Byrnes

Lost Boys - Paul Byrnes

In the First World War of 1914-1918, thousands of boys across Australia and New Zealand lied about their age, forged a parent's signature and left to fight on the other side of the world. This extraordinary book captures the incredible and previously untold stories of forty Anzac boys who fought in the First World War, from Gallipoli to the Armistice. Featuring haunting images of the boys taken at training camps and behind the lines, these tales are both heartbreaking and rousing, full of daring, ingenuity, recklessness, random horror and capricious luck. A unique perspective on the First World War, The Lost Boys is military history made deeply personal, a powerful homage to youthful bravery and a poignant reminder of the sacrifice of war.

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Also available as an eBook on Bolinda

The Lost Legions of Fromelles: the True Story of the Most Dramatic Battle in Australia's History by Peter Barton

Lost Legions of Fromelles - Peter Barton

Peter Barton has written an authoritative and revelatory book on Fromelles. He describes its long and surprising genesis, and offers an unexpected account of the fighting; he investigates the interrogation of Anglo-Australian prisoners, and the results of shrewd German propaganda techniques; and he explores the circumstances surrounding the 'missing' Pheasant Wood graves. He also brings new perspectives to the writing of Charles Bean. This compelling and illuminating history dispels the myths surrounding of the bloodiest battlefields of the Great War.

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1914: The Year the World Ended by Paul Ham

1914 - Paul Ham

1914: The Year the World Ended is a history of the events, and the people who lived through them, which led to the outbreak of the First World War and the creation of the front line that became the scene of the most concentrated slaughter of human beings in history. The lives of millions of young men would be wasted in a doomed struggle to control a trench line running from Liege in Belgium to Verdun in France, which barely moved in four years.1914 draws on the well of the deep past to show how political, economic and social change coalesced into that singularly disastrous year. The narrative hinges on the personal histories of British, French and German soldiers; as well as others involved, or touched, by in the war, such as parents, nurses, deserters and pacifists.

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Also available as an eAudiobook on Bolinda

Breaker Morant: The Epic Story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant: Drover, Horseman, Bush Poet, Murderer or Hero? by Peter FitzSimons

Breaker Morant - Peter Fitzsimons

The epic story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant. Most Australians have heard of the Boer War and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. Born in England and immigrating to Queensland in 1883, he established a reputation as a rider, polo player and poet who submitted ballads to The Bulletin and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend. Travelling on his wits and the goodwill of others, Morant was quick to act when appeals were made for horsemen to serve in the war in South Africa. He joined up, first with the South Australian Mounted Rifles and then with a South African irregular unit, the Bushveldt Carbineers. In October 1901 Lieutenant Harry Morant and two other Australians, Lieutenants Peter Handcock and George Witton, were arrested for the murder of Boer prisoners. Morant and Handcock were court-martialled and executed in February 1902 as the Boer War was in its closing stages. Peter FitzSimons takes us to the harsh landscape of southern Africa and into the bloody action of war. The truths FitzSimons uncovers about 'The Breaker' and the part he played in the Boer War are astonishing and, in the hands of this master storyteller, make compelling reading.

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Films

1917

1917 film

At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield and Blake are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers, including Blake's own brother. Director Sam Mendes takes you right into the trenches and onto the battlefield in a thrilling and immersive experience.

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Beneath Hill 60 (eFilm)

Beneath Hill 60 film

Beneath Hill 60 is an Australian feature film set underneath the trenches of World War One. This never before told Australian story takes place during 1916 and 1917 in Belgium, where Queensland miner Captain Oliver Woodward (played by Brendan Cowell) finds himself on the Western Front - the bloodiest battlefield in history. Deep beneath the German lines, Woodward and his secret platoon fight to defend a labyrinthine tunnel system packed with high explosives. It's a silent and savage war where one tiny sound can turn a man from hunter to the hunted.

Stream now

Halloween reading

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson; illustrated by Axel Scheffler

Room on the Broom - Julia Donaldson

A witch and her cat fly over forests, rivers and mountains on their broomstick, until a stormy wind blows away the witch's hat, bow and wand. They are found by a dog, a bird and a frog. When each animal asks for a ride, the broom snaps and they all tumble into a bog and meet a greedy dragon! Bestselling Room on the Broom is an engaging tale with beautiful rhymes that continues to delight children and adults across the world.

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Also available as an eAudiobook on Bolinda

Is it Halloween Yet? by Susannah Chambers & Tamsin Ainslie

Is it Halloween yet - Susannah Chambers

Emily loves Halloween with its spooky dress-ups, fun games and yummy things to eat. Her busy family is not so sure. Luckily, Emily has a few tricks and treats to get everyone in the mood. Is it Halloween Yet? is a funny and engaging Halloween story with an Australian flavour.

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Christopher Pumpkin by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet; illustrated by Nick East

Christopher Pumpkin - Sue Hendra

Meet Christopher Pumpkin, the Halloween pumpkin who doesn't want to be scary. Christopher Pumpkin is delighted to be brought to life by a witch until he discovers she wants him and the other pumpkins to get her creepy castle ready for the spookiest party ever! Chris just can't bring himself to hang cobwebs and cook curried slugs - he's much more into bunting and fairy cakes! Christopher Pumpkin is a delightful story about blazing your own trail.

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The Witches by Roald Dahl; illustrated by Quentin Blake

The Witches - Roald Dahl

This is a story of a detestable breed of Witches. Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look like ordinary women. They are always plotting and scheming with murderous, bloodthirsty thoughts, and they hate children. The Grand High Witch hates children most of all and plans to make every single one of YOU disappear. Only one boy and his grandmother can stop her, but if their plan fails the Grand High Witch will frizzle them like fritters. The Witches is a spine tingling classic from one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

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Also available as an eBook on Overdrive

Horrid Henry's Halloween Horrors by Francesca Simon; illustrated by Tony Ross

Horrid Henrys Halloween Horrors - Francesca Simon

Have a horror of a Halloween with six favourite scary Horrid Henry stories. Zombie vampires, were-rabbits and strange bumps in the night, Henry's making some fiendishly funny mischief! There are extra treats too, including spooky jokes and a section of puzzles, games, and activities- just the thing for putting the Henry into Halloween.

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Halloween Titles for Adults

The Deep by Alma Katsu

The Deep - Alma Katsu

Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic. This is the only way to explain the series of disappearances, sudden deaths and misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set sail. Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner's illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher are convinced that something sinister is going on. Before they can locate the source of the danger, as the world knows, disaster strikes.  Years later the world is at war and a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic's sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship. Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognises while doing her rounds. It is Mark Fletcher and she is convinced that he could not, have survived the sinking of the Titanic. The Deep combines fact and fiction, the historical and the horrific in a gripping narrative full of unnerving moments.

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Also available as an eBook on Overdrive

Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House- Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has unnerved readers since its original publication in 1959. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at an abandoned old mansion called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, his light hearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. What begins as a light-hearted experiment is swiftly proven to be a trip into their darkest nightmares, and an investigation that one of their number may not survive. The Haunting of Hill House is a chilling story of slow-burning psychological horror.

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Also available as an eBook and eAudiobook on Overdrive

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, Dr Faraday is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds. Are the Ayres family haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his. Shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the Man Booker Prize, The Little Stranger is a frightening tale for readers who prefer an old fashioned gothic ghost story.

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At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft

At the Mountains of Madness - HP Lovecraft

As a new expedition to Antarctica is planned a dark tale emerges of a previous, life-threatening adventure. Revealing hidden secrets, lost civilisations and alien origins, master storyteller H.P. Lovecraft indulges his talent for the macabre and horrific. H.P. Lovecraft is a modern master of horror and gothic fiction, influencing a generation of writers and is a firm favourite among fans of classic horror.

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Also available as an eBook and eAudiobook on Overdrive

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury's extraordinary tale of childhood dreams and the supernatural in small-town America. It's the week before Halloween, and Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's smoke, mazes, and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes and the stuff of nightmares.

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Also available as an eAudiobook on Overdrive

Cooking & Food Inspiration

eBooks

Posh Pancakes by Sue Quinn

From Paris to Palm Springs, pancakes are the hot new food trend. All over the world, people have discovered the joys of Sri Lankan hoppers, Keralan dosas, Vietnamese banh xeo, as well as the humble buttermilk pancake and blini. Posh Pancakes brings you over 70 recipes for this simple meal on a plate. Breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and dessert, the dishes include Chinese pancakes with duck and hoisin sauce, Buckwheat galettes, Italian farinata, spicy Mexican hotcakes with smoky corn salad, and Chocolate and berry-stuffed pikelets. With a guide to basic pancake types and a photograph for every recipe, it's flipping gorgeous!

Available as eBook on Overdrive

The Pie Project by Phoebe Wood

From spiced apple and golden syrup pie to grape, honey and mascarpone galette, Phoebe Wood and Kirsten Jenkins set out to reimagine the classics with their ultimate collection of 60 decadent, sweet pies. There are pies for every occasion– from Pear, Maple Syrup and Brown Butter Pies spiced for the perfect cold-weather dessert, to lighter, fruity pies like Grape, Honey and Mascarpone Galette.

Be inspired to embark on your own pie project: master these, then dream up your own take-anywhere treats.

Available as eBook on Overdrive

The Italian Baker by Melissa Forti

Melissa Forti is the Italian Baker. In her tea room in a medieval town near Tuscany, she bakes beautiful cakes that combine Italian traditions with her own modern twists. This book is a collection of Melissa's favourite tarts, celebration cakes, loaves, biscuits and coffee-time treats borne out of her unique style of baking. Melissa gives favourites like carrot cake, brownies, chocolate cake and cheesecake a fresh, Italian makeover, as well as sharing traditional Italian recipes and others handed down through her family. Every cake and cookie tells a story, reflecting Melissa's travels, her passion for good food and the love of her Italian heritage.

Available as eBook on Overdrive

Clean Soups by Rebecca Kats

Soup has a unique ability to nourish and heal the body. In Clean Soups, author Rebecca Katz shows you how to use wholesome stocks and soups to detox naturally and stay energised all year round. She also explains the building blocks to creating deliciously balanced soups, such as Moroccan carrot soup, Kale soup with coconut and lime, and simplest chicken pho. With foundational broths, blended soups and traditional healing soups, as well as a two-day cleanse, Clean Soups show how one simple bowl can make a huge difference to how you feel.

Available as eBook on Bolinda

Wholefood Heaven in a Bowl by David and Charlotte Bailey

David and Charlotte Bailey serve only nutritious wholefoods from their street-food van, Wholefood Heaven, as they tour the country and travel worldwide in search of recipes and inspiration for new and exciting flavours. Their food is informed by the need to live well and be both mindful of and uplifted by what you put in your body. This book is a celebration of naturally healthy, unprocessed ingredients and flavours from around the world.

Available as eBook on IndyReads

Luke Nguyen's France by Luke Nguyen

Join Luke Nguyen as he travels the length and breadth of the French culinary landscape to discover its food, culture and people. Luke embarks on a personal journey to learn the secrets of classic French dishes and how these recipes have influenced Vietnamese cuisine. Along the way, he catches up with long-distance relatives and meets locals who (if he’s lucky) disclose decades-old secret family recipes. In return, Luke shares his knowledge of Vietnamese cooking and adds his own unique flourishes to some of these classic dishes. Filled with beautiful food and landscape photography, Luke Nguyen’s France is the ultimate companion to French cuisine and beyond.

Available as eBook on Overdrive

Ottolenghi Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi

Yotam Ottolenghi’s award-winning recipes are always an unforgettable combination of abundance, taste and surprise. Ottolenghi Simple is no different, with 130 brand-new dishes that contain all the inventive elements and flavour combinations, but with minimal hassle for maximum joy.
Ottolenghi Simple showcases Yotam’s standout dishes that will suit whatever type of cooking you find easy – whether that’s getting wonderful food on the table in under 30 minutes, using just one pot to make a delicious meal, or a flavoursome dish that can be prepared ahead and then served when you’re ready.

Available as eBook on Bolinda

Films

City of Gold

City of Gold chronicles Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold’s relationship to his beloved and sprawling metropolis, Los Angeles. Mapping Los Angeles through his quests for new food experiences, Jonathan Gold reveals a complex, paradoxical urban landscape that will surprise newcomers and locals alike. Featuring celebrity chefs Roy Choi, David Chang, and Ludo Lefebvre, as well as the chefs and owners behind some of Gold’s favourites, City of Gold offers the rare opportunity to discover the true Los Angeles through the eyes of its foremost cultural writer, and most loyal fan.

Available via Beamafilm

Ants on a Shrimp: Noma in Tokyo

Ants On A Shrimp: NOMA in Tokyo is an exploration of creativity and inspiration, and a journey of discovery into the people and places, sights and sounds, tastes and flavours, of one of the world's most amazing food cultures. In January 2015, Noma, recognized as the World's Best Restaurant, and led by its charismatic chef René Redzepi, moved its entire team from Denmark to Japan. Known for his one-of-a-kind cooking and for distilling the Danish landscape and 'time and place' onto a plate, can Redzepi and his team apply their philosophy to an entirely foreign experience, using ingredients that they've never seen before, all whilst under the intense pressure and scrutiny that comes with running the world's best restaurant?

Available via Beamafilm

eMagazine

Delicious magazine

Delicious magazine celebrates good food and the people who produce it, from renowned international chefs and food-lovers around Australia. Inside each issue you’ll find achievable recipes that work every time, plus inspiration for foodie travel.

Available as eMagazine on RBdigital

Isolation Escapism Reads and Flicks

Fiction

The Mothers' Group by Fiona Higgins

The Mothers' Group tells the story of six very different women who agree to regularly meet soon after the births of their babies. Set during the first crucial year of their babies' lives, The Mothers' Group tracks the women's individual and collective journeys as they navigate birth and motherhood as well as the shifting ground of their relationships with their partners. One day a shocking event changes everything, testing their bonds and revealing closely held secrets that threaten to shatter their lives. The Mothers' Group is an unflinching and compelling portrait of the modern family in all its complexity and intensity: love, sex and marriage and all the joys and tensions of raising children in an increasingly complicated world.

Available on eBook via Bolinda Digital

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe that she would be abandoned as a young child, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice's old journals. Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest. The first is Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons--only to later doubt her gifts. The second is Virgil Stanhope, a jaded private detective who originally investigated Alice's case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realise that in asking hard questions, they'll have to face even harder answers.

Available on eAudiobook via Bolinda Digital

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Come laugh and cry with the March family. Meg - the sweet-tempered one. Jo - the smart one. Beth - the shy one. Amy - the sassy one. Together they're the March sisters. Their father is away at war and times are difficult, but the bond between the sisters is strong. The family may not have much money, but that doesn't stop them from creating their own fun and forming a secret society. Through sisterly squabbles, happy times and sad, their four lives follow very different paths, and they discover that growing up is sometimes very hard to do...

Available on eBook and eAudiobook via Bolinda Digital

The Mother's Promise by Sally Hepworth

Alice and her daughter Zoe have been a team of two all their lives. With no family to speak of, and the identity of Zoe's father shrouded in mystery, they've never needed anyone else, until Alice gets sick. Desperate to find stability for Zoe, Alice reaches out to two near-strangers: Kate, her oncology nurse, and Sonja, her social worker. As the lives of the three women become inextricably tied, a chain of events is set into motion, forcing them to confront their deepest fears and secrets. The Mother's Promise is an unforgettable novel about the strength of a mother's love.

Available on eBook via Bolinda Digital

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers' advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives - until their own inner crises reveal how much they've unknowingly inherited of their mothers' pasts.

Available on eBook via Overdrive

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy is recovering from an operation in a New York hospital when she wakes to find her estranged mother sitting by her bed. They have not seen one another in years. As they talk Lucy finds herself recalling her troubled rural childhood and how it was she eventually arrived in the big city, got married and had children. But this unexpected visit leaves her doubting the life she's made: wondering what is lost and what has yet to be found.

Available on eBook via Bolinda Digital, Overdrive and indyreads

Mothers and Sons by Colm Tóibín

Mothers and Sons is a sensitive and beautifully written meditation on the dramas surrounding this most elemental of relationships. Each of the nine stories focuses on a moment in which an unspoken balance shifts; in which a mother or son do battle, or experience a sudden crisis, thus leaving their conception of who they are subtly or seriously altered.

Available on eBook via Indyreads

Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry

Aurora Greenway is the kind of woman who makes the whole world orbit around her, including a string of devoted suitors. Widowed and overprotective of her daughter, Aurora adapts at her own pace until life sends two enormous challenges her way. Her daughter Emma marries hastily and subsequently battles with cancer. Terms of Endearment is the story of an unforgettable mother and her feisty daughter and their struggle to find the courage and humour to live through life's hazards - and to love each other as never before.

Available on eBook via Indyreads

Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah

Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the secondary school social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the 'coolest girl in the world', Tully Hart moves in across the street and wants to be her best friend. Tully and Kate became inseparable and by summer's end they made a pact to be 'best friends forever'. For thirty years Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship, jealousy, anger, hurt and resentment. Tully will follow her ambition to find fame and success. Kate knows that all she wants is to fall in love and have a family. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and a mother will change her.

Available on eBook via Bolinda

This Is Your Life Harriet Chance by Jonathan Evison

Recently widowed, Harriet Chance discovers that her late husband Bernard had been planning an Alaskan cruise. Ignoring the advice of her children and wanting to make the most of the opportunity, she decides to set sail. There, amid the buffets and lounge singers, between the imagined appearances of Bernard and the very real arrival of her daughter, Harriet is forced to take a long look back, confronting the truth about pivotal events that changed the course of her life.

Available on eBook via Overdrive

Non-Fiction

My Girls: A lifetime with Carrie and Debbie by Todd Fisher

In December 2016, the world was shaken by the sudden deaths of Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds, two unspeakable losses that occurred in less than twenty-four hours. Todd shares his heart and his memories of Debbie and Carrie with deeply personal stories from his earliest years to those last unfathomable days. His book, part memoir, part homage, celebrates their legacies through a more intimate, poignant, and often hilarious portrait of these two remarkable women than has ever been revealed before.

Available on eBook and eAudiobook via Bolinda

Buddhism for Mothers by Sarah Napthali

Buddhism for Mothers explores the potential to be with your children in the all-important present moment; to gain the most joy out of being with them. How can this be done calmly and with a minimum of anger, worry and negative thinking? How can mothers negotiate the changed conditions of their relationships with partners, family and even with friends? Using Buddhist practices, Sarah Napthali offers ways of coping with the day-to-day challenges of motherhood. By acknowledging the sorrows as well as the joys of mothering Buddhism for Mothers can help you shift your perspective so that your mind actually helps you through your day rather than dragging you down. This is Buddhism at its most accessible, applied to the daily realities of ordinary parents.

Available on eBook via Bolinda

Mindfulness for Mums and Dads by Dr Diana Korevaar

Dr Diana Korevaar, a practising perinatal psychiatrist, uses mindfulness practice as a powerful tool to help parents calm down, connect and reframe the challenges they face in order to experience life more positively. Grounded in science, Mindfulness for Mums and Dads features dozens of case studies, as well as simple mindfulness practices that can be carried out anywhere.

Available on eBook via Bolinda

One Life: My Mother's Story by Kate Grenville

When Kate Grenville's mother died she left behind many fragments of memoir. These were the starting point for One Life, the story of a woman whose life spanned a century of tumult and change. In many ways Nance's story echoes that of many mothers and grandmothers, for whom the spectacular shifts of the twentieth century offered a path to new freedoms and choices. In other ways Nance was exceptional. In an era when women were expected to have no ambitions beyond the domestic, she ran successful businesses as a registered pharmacist, laid the bricks for the family home, and discovered her husband's secret life as a revolutionary. One Life is an act of great imaginative sympathy, a daughter's intimate account of the patterns in her mother's life.

Available on eBook via Overdrive

Breathe, Mama, Breathe by Shonda Moralis

Mums can feel as if they are sprinting through life, crashing onto the pillow at day's end only to start again the next morning. In Breathe, Mama, Breathe, psychotherapist Shonda Moralis outlines the benefits of daily meditation and shows moms how to do it—in just five minutes!

Available on eBook via Overdrive

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

Through the story of three generations of women in her own family – the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother and the daughter herself, Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China's twentieth century. Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a masterpiece which is extraordinary in every way.

Available on eBook and eAudiobook via Bolinda

Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed

At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America - from the Mojave Desert, through California and Oregon, and into Washington state - and to do it alone. She had no experience of long-distance hiking and the journey was nothing more than a line on a map. Strayed's account captures the mental and physical agonies of her incredible journey, how it maddened and terrified her, and how, ultimately, it healed her. Wild is a brutal memoir of survival, grief and redemption.

Available on eBook and eAudiobook via Bolinda

Motherhood & Creativity by Rachel Power

Do women still confront the attitude that they have to choose between following their creative dreams and having children? In Motherhood & Creativity, some of Australia’s most respected actors, writers, artists and musicians speak frankly about the wrench between motherhood and their creative lives. In these compelling, honest and insightful interviews, 22 women open up about the various challenges and pleasures they’ve faced when combining motherhood with an undiminished passion for their creative work.

Available on eBook via Indyreads

Happy Mama by Amy Taylor-Kabbaz

Are you struggling to figure out who you are now that you’re a mum? Do you sometimes feel like you’re coming last in your own life? Journalist and life coach Amy Taylor-Kabbaz was one of those women who put themselves last, until she discovered that putting herself first was better not only for her, but for her kids too. Happy Mama is the collected wisdom from Amy’s makeover from strung-out parent to happy, self-loving mum. Including interviews with working mums, psychologists, counsellors and spiritual leaders, it is full of practical and empowering advice that will help you change the way you feel about motherhood so the whole family can flourish.

Available on eBook via Indyreads

10 Habits of Happy Mothers by Dr Meg Meeker

In the 10 Habits of Happy Mothers Dr. Meeker incorporates clinical data and her own experience raising four children to show why mothers suffer from the rising pressure to excel and the toll it takes on their emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual health. Too many mothers are increasingly lonely, anxious, depressed, and unhappy with themselves, refusing to let themselves off the hook. By implementing the key strategies in Dr. Meeker's book, you can be happy, hopeful, and a wonderful role model. You can teach your children to be the very best they can be and isn't that still the most precious reward of motherhood?

Available on eBook via Overdrive

Flicks

Book Club

Four lifelong friends’ lives are turned upside down to hilarious ends when their book club tackles the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey. Diane is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage and Vivian enjoys her men with no strings attached. Sharon is still working through a decades-old divorce. Carol’s marriage is in a slump after 35 years. From discovering new romance to rekindling old flames, they inspire each other to make their next chapter the best chapter.

Available on Beamafilm

The Last Time I Saw Paris

Charles returns to Paris to reminisce about the life he led in Paris after it was liberated. He worked on "Stars and Stripes" when he met Marion and Helen. He would marry and be happy staying in Paris after his discharge and working for a news organisation. He would try to write his great novel and that would come between Charlie, his wife and his daughter.

Available on Beamafilm

The September Issue

Anna Wintour, the legendary editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine for twenty years, is the most powerful and polarizing figure in fashion. Hidden behind her trademark bob and sunglasses, she has never allowed anyone to scrutinize the inner workings of her magazine. Until now. With unprecedented access, filmmaker R.J. Cutler's The September Issue does for fashion what he did for politics in The War Room, taking the viewer inside a world they only think they know.

Available on Beamafilm

La Dolce Vita

Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) is a young playboy and jaded journalist who spends his days between celebrities and rich people, seeking ephemeral joy in parties and sex. When a famous film star comes to Rome, he does everything he can to meet her, and when he does, he is totally charmed by her. Famous for coining the word "Paparazzo" after one of its characters, this is one of Fellini's best films and made its title synonymous with the exuberant and decadent lifestyle of an era.

Available on Beamafilm

I am Big Bird

This heartwarming documentary chronicles the life of Caroll Spinney, the man who has been Sesame Street's Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since 1969. For over 4 decades, Caroll's characters have been cherished by generations of children. At 81 years old, the tenacious and enthusiastic performer has no intention of slowing down. This loving portrait peels away the instances that inspired his creation of Big Bird and as the yellow feathers give way to grey hair, it is the man, not the puppet, who will steal your heart.

Available on Beamafilm

Charade

Romance and suspense in Paris, as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Who can she trust? Regina is about to divorce her husband when she finds that he has been murdered after converting every penny they owned to cash, which is also missing. She meets Cary Grant who changes his name every 15 minutes or so and is interested in her husband’s money, which seems to have come from a WWII payroll he stole. His partners in crime are also very interested in where the money is, as he stole it from them as well. Everyone assumes Regina MUST know where the money is. The situation becomes tenser when the searchers begin turning up dead.

Available on Beamafilm

Their Finest

1940, London, the Blitz. With the country’s morale at stake, Catrin, an untried screenwriter, and a makeshift cast and crew, work under fire to make a film to lift the nation’s spirits - and inspire America to join the war. A witty, romantic and moving portrayal of a young woman finding her way, and her voice, in the mayhem of war and the movies!

Available on Beamafilm

Anne of Green Gables

Anne (Elle Ballentine) is an 11 year-old girl in need of attention and affection - having lived much of her young life in orphanages and strangers' homes. But when she is offered the chance to join a family on prince Edward island, she takes up the opportunity with a big heart and all the optimism she can muster. Received into the home of brother and sister Marilla (Sarah Botsford, The Fog) and Matthew Cuthbert (Golden Globe winner Martin Sheen, The West Wing), Anne begins life anew - tackling her responsibilities with enthusiasm and vigour. With noble aspirations to become a teacher, Anne sets out to truly show the world what she is made of.

Available on Beamafilm

A Little Chaos

The world’s greatest landscape architect – Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) – designer of the Versailles gardens, is unfulfilled in love. Madame Sabine de Bara (Kate Winslet) is pioneering and fiercely independent , her visionary ideas for design seem anarchic to King Louis’ (Alan Rickman) formal court. It takes a little chaos for nature to blossom and love to heal and ignite.

Available on Beamafilm

Crime

Get your crime fix online with titles that will thrill and keep you guessing until the very end.

The Sea of Lost Girls by Carol Goodman

The Sea of Lost Girls

In the tradition of Daphne du Maurier, Shari Lapena, and Michelle Richmond comes a new thriller from the bestselling author of The Lake of Dead Languages—a twisty, harrowing story set at a prestigious prep school in which one woman's carefully hidden past might destroy her future.

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried, where it belongs. Now she's the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her seventeen-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behaviour she's long worried about, seems to be thriving: he has a lead role in the school play and a smart and ambitious girlfriend. Tess tries not to think about the mistakes she made eighteen years ago, and mostly, she succeeds.

And then one more morning she gets a text at 2:50 AM: it's Rudy, asking for help. When Tess picks him up she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess gets a phone call from the Haywood school headmistress: Lila Zeller, Rudy's girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where Tess found Rudy just hours before.

As the investigation into Lila's death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister, and not only is Tess's son a suspect but her husband is a person of interest too. But Lila's death isn't the first blemish on Haywood's record, and the more Tess learns about Haywood's fabled history, the more she realises that not all skeletons will stay safely locked in the closet.

Available as eBook on Overdrive

Our Dark Secret by Jenny Quintana

Our Dark Secret

From the author of The Missing Girl, Jenny Quintana's gripping novel, Our Dark Secret, tells the story of two girls, two deaths and two decades of silence . . .

The crazy girls, they called them – or at least, Elizabeth liked to think they did. As a teenager in the late 1970s, she was clever, overweight and a perfect victim for the bullies. Then Rachel and her family arrived in town and, for Elizabeth, it was as if a light had been switched on. She was drawn to the bright and beautiful Rachel like a moth to a flame.

Rachel had her own reasons for wanting Elizabeth as a friend, and although their relationship was far from equal, Elizabeth would do anything for Rachel.

Then the first body was discovered.

Twenty years on, Elizabeth wants nothing more than to keep the secrets of her teenage years where they belong: in the past. But another body has been found, and she can't keep running from what happened.

Can she?

Available as eBook on Overdrive

The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel

The Glass Hotel

The extraordinary novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of Station Eleven

Vincent is the beautiful bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star glass-and-cedar palace on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. New York financier Jonathan Alkaitis owns the hotel. When he passes Vincent his card with a tip, it's the beginning of their life together. That same day, a hooded figure scrawls a note on the windowed wall of the hotel: 'Why don't you swallow broken glass.' Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune-Avramidis, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. Thirteen years later Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of a Neptune-Avramidis ship.

Weaving together the lives of these characters, Emily St John Mandel's The Glass Hotel moves between the ship, the skyscrapers of Manhattan, and the wilderness of remote British Columbia, painting a breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.

Available as eBook on Overdrive

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Long Bright River

Mickey Fitzpatrick has been patrolling the 24th District for years. She knows most of the working women by name. She knows what desperation looks like and what people will do when they need a fix. She's become used to finding overdose victims: their numbers are growing every year. But every time she sees someone sprawled out, slumped over, cold to the touch, she has to pray it's not her sister, Kacey.

When the bodies of murdered sex workers start turning up on the Ave, the Chief of Police is keen to bury the news. They're not the kind of victims that generate a whole lot of press anyway. But Mickey is obsessed, dangerously so, with finding the perpetrator - before Kacey becomes the next victim.
'A remarkable, profoundly moving novel about the ties that bind and the irrevocable wounds of childhood. It's also a riveting mystery, perfectly paced. I loved every page of it.' DENNIS LEHANE

Available as eBook on Overdrive

Criss Cross by James Patterson

Criss Cross

Mere hours after witnessing the execution of a killer he helped put behind bars, Alex Cross is called to the scene of a copycat murder. A note signed ‘M’ rests on the corpse: ‘You messed up big time, Dr. Cross.’

Was an innocent man just put to death? As the executed convict’s family launch a vicious campaign against Cross, his abilities as a detective are called into question.

The enigmatic ‘M’ lures Cross out of Washington, DC to the sites of multiple homicides, all marked with distressingly familiar details that conjure up decades-old cases and Cross family secrets.

Details that make it clear M is after a prize so dear that – were the killer to attain it – Cross’s life would be destroyed.

Available as eAudiobook on Bolinda

Silver by Chris Hammer

Silver

For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping.

He'd vowed never to return to his hometown, Port Silver, and its traumatic memories. But now his new partner, Mandy Blonde, has inherited an old house in the seaside town and Martin knows their chance of a new life together won't come again.

Martin arrives to find his best friend from school days brutally murdered, and Mandy the chief suspect. With the police curiously reluctant to pursue other suspects, Martin goes searching for the killer. And finds the past waiting for him.

He's making little progress when a terrible new crime starts to reveal the truth. The media descend on Port Silver, attracted by a story that has it all: sex, drugs, celebrity and religion. Once again, Martin finds himself in the front line of reporting.

Yet the demands of deadlines and his desire to clear Mandy are not enough: the past is ever present.

An enthralling and propulsive thriller from the acclaimed and bestselling author of Scrublands.

Available as eBook on Bolinda

Comfort Reads

In times of uncertainty, it's comforting to read a beloved book that can lift your mood and bring you joy. Whether an old favourite, childhood classic or title that soothes the mind.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

From the author of Daisy Jones & The Six—an entrancing novel "that speaks to the Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor in us all" (Kirkus Reviews), in which a legendary film actress reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the '80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.

"Heartbreaking, yet beautiful" (Jamie Blynn, Us Weekly), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is "Tinseltown drama at its finest" (Redbook): a mesmerising journey through the splendour of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it costs—to face the truth.

Available as eBook on Overdrive

Wonderful Feels Like This by Sara Lövestam

Wonderful Feels Like This

A celebration of being a little bit odd, finding your people and the power of music to connect us.

For Steffi, going to school everyday is an exercise in survival. She's never fit in with any of the groups at school, and she's viciously teased by the other girls in her class. The only way she escapes is through her music—especially jazz music.

When Steffi hears her favourite jazz song playing through an open window of a retirement home on her walk home from school, she decides to go in and introduce herself. The old man playing her favorite song is Alvar. When Alvar was a teenager in World War II Sweden, he dreamed of being in a real jazz band. Then and now, Alvar's escape is music—especially jazz music.

Through their unconventional friendship, Steffi comes to realise that she won't always feel alone. She can go to music school in Stockholm. She can be a real musician. She can be a jitterbug, just like Alvar.

But how can Steffi convince her parents to let her go to Stockholm to audition? And how is it that Steffi's school, the retirement home, the music and even Steffi's worst bully are somehow all connected to Alvar? Can it be that the people least like us are the ones we need to help us tell our own stories?

Available as eBook on Overdrive

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant

Sunday Times bestseller and the Book of the Year Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she's avoided all her life. Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than... fine? 'Moving, funny and devastating' The Herald 'Unforgettable, brilliant, funny and life-affirming' Daily Mail 'I adored it. Skilled, perceptive, Eleanor's world will feel familiar to you from the very first page. An outstanding debut!' Joanna Cannon

Available as eBook on Overdrive

The Complete Short Stories of Roald Dahl: Volumes One and Two

Roald Dahl Volume 1Roald Dahl Volume 2

'They are brutal, these stories, and yet you finish reading each one with a smile, or maybe even a hollow laugh, certainly a shiver of gratification, because the conclusion always seems so right' Charlie Higson, from his introduction.

Roald Dahl is one of the most popular writers of the modern age, effortlessly writing for children and adults alike. In this, the first of two volumes chronologically collecting all his published adult short stories, we see how Dahl began by using his experiences in the war to write fiction but quickly turned to his powerful and dark imagination to pen some of the most unsettling and disquieting tales ever written.

Enter the sinister, twisted world of Roald Dahl: whether you're young or old, you'll never want to leave.

Available as eBooks on Overdrive: Volume 1 and Volume 2

44 Scotland Street: Series 1-3 by Alexander McCall Smith

44 Scotland Street

Alexander McCall Smith's delightful series of novels form the basis of these radio dramas featuring the inhabitants of an Edinburgh tenement building.

With its multiple-occupancy flats, Scotland Street is an interesting corner of Edinburgh's New Town. Verging on the Bohemian, here the haute bourgeoisie rubs shoulders with students and the more colourful members of the intelligentsia.

In these three BBC Radio 4 series, Domenica MacDonald and Angus Lordie observe the lives of their neighbours in and around around 44 Scotland Street. Pretty young Pat, a new tenant, arrives to flat-share with Bruce, a surveyor with an eye for the ladies. Child prodigy Bertie, controlled by his pretentious and intellectual mother Irene, is learning the saxophone; he also speaks Italian, and is extremely knowledgeable about many subjects. And then there's Matthew, setting up the Something Special Gallery with little knowledge of artists or paintings!

Carol Ann Crawford and Crawford Logan star, with an extensive cast including James Mackenzie, Samuel Keefe and Anita Vettesse. Adapted by Alexander McCall Smith from his bestselling books, which continue to delight readers around the world, these charming serials are full of novelty, humour and empathy. Duration: 3 hours 30 mins approx.

Available as eAudiobook on Overdrive

More inspiration
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