Staff Picks

Woke Up Like This

Woke Up Like This

Planning the perfect prom is one last "to do" on ultra-organized Charlotte Wu's high school bucket list. So far, so good, if not for a decorating accident that sends Charlotte crash-landing off a ladder, face-first into her obnoxiously ripped archnemesis J. T. Renner. Worse? When Charlotte wakes up, she finds herself in an unfamiliar bed at thirty years old, with her bearded fianc , Renner, by her side.

Either they've lost their minds or they've been drop-kicked into adulthood, forever trapped in the thirty-year-old bodies of their future selves. With each other as their only constant, Charlotte and Renner discover all that's changed in the time they've missed. Charlotte also learns there's more to Renner than irritating-jock charm, and that reaching the next milestone isn't as important as what happens in between.

Navigating a series of adventures and a confounding new normal, Charlotte and Renner will do whatever it takes to find a way back to seventeen. But when--and if--they do, what then?

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Snapdragon

Snapdragon

Snap’s town has a witch.

And when Snap’s dog goes missing, the first place she looks is the witch’s house. She finds her dog there, recovering from being hit by a car, in the care of a woman named Jacks. She is a crocks-wearing, internet-savvy older woman whos collects roadkill, put their spirits to rest, and cleans and sells their articulated skeletons online.

They make a deal: If Jacks teaches Snap how to take care of a crate of orphaned baby opossums that Snap rescued, Snap will assist Jacks with her work. But as Snap starts to gain an appreciation for what Jacks does and their friendship deepens . . . she realizes that Jacks may in fact have real magic and that she also may have a connection with Snap's family’s past. 

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Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions

In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut's most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.

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The Prison Healer

The Prison Healer

Here at Zalindov, the only person you can trust is yourself.

Seventeen-year-old Kiva Meridan has spent the last ten years fighting for survival in the notorious death prison, Zalindov, working as the prison healer.

When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal- a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals.

Then a coded message from Kiva's family arrives, containing a single order- Don't let her die. We are coming. Aware that the Trials will kill the sickly queen, Kiva risks her own life to volunteer in her place. If she succeeds, both she and the queen will be granted their freedom.

But no one has ever survived.

With an incurable plague sweeping Zalindov, a mysterious new inmate fighting for Kiva's heart, and a prison rebellion brewing, Kiva can't escape the terrible feeling that her trials have only just begun.

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Prophet Song

Prophet Song

On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her doorstep. Two officers from Ireland's newly formed secret police want to speak with her husband, Larry, a trade unionist for the Teachers' Union of Ireland. Things are falling apart. Ireland is in the grip of a government that is taking a turn towards tyranny. And as the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society assailed by unpredictable forces beyond her control and forced to do whatever it takes to keep her family together.

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The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. 

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. 

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. 

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

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At the Foot Of The Cherry Tree

At the Foot Of The Cherry Tree

Gordon Parker is just an eager eighteen-year-old Australian boy desperate to fight for his country, and Nobuko 'Cherry' Sakuramoto is a sixteen-year-old girl struggling to survive in Japan in the aftermath of World War II. But when they fall in love, they change the course of history.

When Gordon arrives in Japan, he expects ruthless samurai, angry Japanese men ready to kill Australians at every corner. Instead, he finds Cherry, terrified of ex-enemy soldiers, a 16-year-old survivor of the atomic bomb. Against all the rules and against all odds, they fall in love. But when Gordon discovers the White Australia Policy prevents Cherry coming home with him as his war bride, Gordon does what any 20-year-old soldier would do. He vows to fight. Leaving Cherry alone and pregnant in post-war Japan, Gordon somehow has to convince his family to accept his marriage and wage a desperate campaign against a xenophobic and war-scarred government to allow his wife and his family to come home.

A story spanning seven years and two countries reeling from the aftermath of war, At the Foot of the Cherry Tree is a sweeping and moving novel about faith, trust, and the power of a love that alters history - written by Gordon and Cherry's granddaughter, accomplished scriptwriter, Alli Parker. 

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Best Wishes

Best Wishes

Making the world a better, less annoying place one wish at a time. 

Do you hate noisy restaurants, pre-ripped jeans and pedestrians who walk five abreast? 

Do you also have a problem with plastic-wrapped fruit, climate-change deniers and take-away sandwiches priced at $14.95? 

And, most of all, do you think the world would be a better place if people got back their sense of humour? 

Here's proof you are not alone. Heartfelt and hilarious, serious but sly, Best Wishes is the encyclopedia of 'can do better'. It's a plea for a better world - one wish at a time.

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Vincent & Sien

Vincent & Sien

The Hague, 1882, a howling winter's night, Sien and her daughter are on the brink of surrendering to the bitter cold, their exhaustion, their hunger, when a good Samaritan appears. Vincent van Gogh, a struggling artist, provides them with warmth and shelter for the night. Fascinated by Sien - her face, her struggles, her life lived - Vincent offers Sien work sitting for him. From model to muse, the two soon become lovers.

As the connection and intimacy between Vincent and Sien deepen, their relationship draws scathing scrutiny and hostility from the town and those closest to them, threatening to tear them apart.

Can their love endure, even if it spells ruin for them both?

This is the breathtaking and visceral intertwining of one woman's need for survival and one man's road to artistic genius. This is the story of Vincent and Sien. 
 

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48 Clues Into The Disappearance Of My Sister

48 Clues Into The Disappearance Of My Sister

What has become of Marguerite Fulmer? On an otherwise average day in Upstate New York, the young woman left her family home, never to return. No note was left, no explanation; just a messy bedroom and her sister Gigi, driven to dig through the meager clues and discover the truth behind her disappearance. 

As the investigation unfolds, every subtle bit of evidence becomes a potential clue. The silk Dior slip dress, left in a heap on the floor; the impression of Ferragamo boots outside in the dirt, a trail of footsteps that abruptly ends before it leaves the yard. And as Gigi trails the detectives, she finds previously unknown troubles in the life of her perfect, gorgeous, much-loved sister?troubles that at times seem to reflect her own.

Bit by bit, like ripping the petals off a flower blossom, a dark truth is revealed. And subtly, but with the unbearable suspense at which Joyce Carol Oates excels, clues mount and bring to light the fate of the missing beauty.

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Shellharbour City Libraries acknowledges the traditional custodians of Dharawal Country and recognises their continued connection to the land. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and the contribution they make to the life of this City.