Find Your Next Great Read This May

It's the start of another month and that can mean only one thing - our Next Reads newsletter has arrived safely in your inbox. 

If you are on social media don't forget to join our In a Nook with a Book Facebook Group where we discuss all things books.

Also don't miss out An Evening with Fi and Mike (authors of 'The Drop Off' and 'The Pick Up',) later this month at Pakenham library! Book your place here.

We hope you find your next great read in this month's newsletter.

The Truth About Faking It by Cassie Hamer

The Trainor women have always been excellent at hiding their true feelings... until now. Ellen's estranged husband, David, has managed to interrupt her fabulous life of bridge and zumba by getting himself killed in a Thai boating accident.

Regrettably, her daughter, self-possessed TV news broadcaster Natasha and granddaughter, reality TV producer Georgie, seem to take the whole 'dead' thing very personally and they decide to dig deeper, though neither really has time.

One way or another, all three women are faking it and as matters come to a head, the truth wills out in the most unexpected of ways...

My Heart Is A Little Wild Thing - Nigel Featherstone

The day after I tried to kill my mother, I tossed some clothes, a pair of hiking boots, a baseball cap and a few toiletries into my backpack, and left at dawn.
 
Patrick has always considered himself a good son. Willing to live his life to please his parents, his sense of duty paramount to his own desires and dreams. But as his mother’s health continues to deteriorate and his siblings remain absent, he finds the ties that bind him to his mother begin to chafe.
 
After an argument leads to a violent act, he travels to a familiar country retreat to reflect on what his life could be – and through a chance encounter with a rare animal and an intriguing stranger starts to wonder if perhaps it is not too late to let his heart run wild.

Dancing With The Enemy - Diane Armstrong

June 1940. `It was a perfect June evening that began with hope and ended in despair.' So begins the journal of Hugh Jackson, a Jersey doctor, whose idyllic world is shattered when Britain abandons the Channel Islands which are invaded by the Germans.

May 1942. Young Tom Gaskell fumes whenever he sees the hated swastika flying from Fort Regent. Humiliated by Jersey's surrender and ashamed of his mother's fraternisation with the occupiers, Tom forms an audacious plan, not suspecting that it will result in guilt and tragedy.

April 2019. Sydney doctor Xanthe Maxwell, traumatised by the suicide of her colleague and burnt out by the relentless pressure of her hospital work, travels to St Helier so she can figure out what to do with her life.

By the time this novel reaches its moving climax, the connection between Tom, Xanthe and Hugh Jackson has been revealed in a way none of them could possibly have imagined.

Black River by Matthew Spencer

A long, burning summer in Sydney. A young woman found murdered in the deserted grounds of an elite boarding school. A serial killer preying on victims along the banks of the Parramatta River. A city on edge.

Adam Bowman, a battling journalist who grew up as the son of a teacher at Prince Albert College, might be the only person who can uncover the links between the school murder and the 'Blue Moon Killer'. But he will have to go into the darkest places of his childhood to piece together the clues. Detective Sergeant Rose Riley, meanwhile, is part of the taskforce desperately trying to find the killer before he strikes again. Adam Bowman's excavation of his past might turn out to be Rose's biggest trump card or it may bring the whole investigation crashing down, and put her own life in danger.

Taut, suspenseful and utterly compelling, Black River is the best thriller you'll read this year.

The Opera House by Peter Fitzsimons

The Sydney Opera House is a breath-taking building, recognised around the world as a symbol of modern Australia. Along with the Taj Mahal and other World Heritage sites, it is celebrated for its architectural grandeur and the daring and innovation of its design. It showcases the incomparable talents involved in its conception, construction and performance history.

But this stunning house on Bennelong Point also holds many secrets and scandals. In his gripping biography, Peter FitzSimons marvels at how this magnificent building came to be, details its enthralling history and reveals the dramatic stories and hidden secrets about the people whose lives have been affected, both negatively and positively, by its presence.

Lisa - A Memoir by Lisa Curry

Triple Olympian and wellness entrepreneur Lisa Curry has lived her life in the public eye for six decades. In this very personal memoir, she shares the untold story of being Lisa.  A swimming prodigy who became one of Australia's first fitness entrepreneurs, Lisa Curry swam to Olympic fame in the '80s and '90s. With celerity and celebrity, she became in equal parts the darling of women's magazines and tabloid fodder, until, at 58, a family tragedy nearly consumed her. From the golden girl of Australian swimming to a 'super mum' and now a proud grannie, Lisa Curry has a powerful story to tell of endurance and enduring.

Queen Menopause by Alison Daddo

Every woman will eventually go through menopause - that's half the population of the planet!   Through sharing her own experience in a very real way, Ali hopes that women won't feel so alone in what can be a very lonely time. Alongside stories from some very well-known Australian women (and the men in their lives), including Georgie Parker, Anita Heiss and Rhonda Burchmore, Queen Menopause is the book Ali wishes she had when she was approaching menopause - so she could be more prepared for what was coming, embrace the process and feel supported. You will too when you read this book.

The Uncaged Sky - Kylie Moor-Gilbert

The extraordinary true story of Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s fight to survive 804 days imprisoned in Iran.

On September 12, 2018 British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran Airport by Iran’s feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by Iran’s most notorious judge, Dr Moore-Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  On November 25, 2020, after more than two years of struggle, Kylie was finally released in a high stakes three-nation prisoner swap deal orchestrated by the Australian government, laying bare the complex game of global politics in which she had become a valuable pawn.

Written with extraordinary insight and vivid immediacy, The Uncaged Sky is Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s remarkable story of courage and resilience, and a powerful meditation on hope, solidarity and what it means to be free.