The girl with the violin
It's 1989 and for a young Jewish-Australian violinist, a scholarship to Berlin is the chance of a lifetime. Germany is on the verge of change as the wall is torn down, and Susanna is swept along by the tumultuous event. Under the careful guidance of Stefan Heinemeyer, her renowned violin teacher and the grandson of a Nazi, she begins a composition in memory of her grandmother, Mirla, who died in the Buchenwald concentration camp during the Second World War, and Susanna is inspired to retrace Mirla's final footsteps.
It's a journey that reconnects Susanna to her heritage and propels her musical gift to extraordinary heights. Yet as a forbidden yearning for Stefan begins to unfurl, Susanna's life is forever changed, and the repercussions will echo through decades and across continents.
In a world where history, society and inherited traumas threaten to silence Susanna and prevent her from ever becoming her true self, can she find the courage to reclaim her power as a woman, a musician and a composer, and in so doing, lay her haunted past to rest?
Outback brides of Wirralong: Tess
Up and coming American winemaker Tess Harrison is temporarily working at an Australian vineyard where her family now has a financial stake. She’s excited to make her mark away from her dominant family and the outback’s premier organic winery seems like the perfect training ground. One problem: no one told her the small town Wirralong was a premier wedding destination. When a new hire upends Tess’s careful plans for her life and her career, she finds herself reluctantly rethinking her dislike for the M word.
Tall, dark and rugged-looking Australian Connor Hawker has just been hired as the new Irrigation Manager at an organic vineyard. This new job was meant to be a fresh start, far away from South Australia and the small church where he was dumped at the altar by his French fiancée. He wants nothing more than to be laser-focused on his new job, except he finds himself distracted by the talented, cheerful and ambitious blonde winemaker from California. Soon their no-strings fling becomes far more complicated, and Connor wonders if another woman – with life plans across an ocean – will again leave him alone.
Long Island
A spectacularly moving and intense tale of secrecy, misunderstanding and love – the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín’s most popular work, 20 years later.
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighbouring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her 40s with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country.
One day, an Irishman comes to the door asking for Eilis by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but will leave it with her. Eilis has choices to make, and what she does in the wake of this shattering news is at the heart of one of Tóibín's most riveting and emotional novels to date.
This is not a self-help book but it might just help you
Much of Mark Mehigan’s 20s read like a how-to manual: How to get very drunk without raising people’s suspicions you might be an alcoholic. Outwardly successful, inside he was drowning.
Nearing 30, he was hurtling towards a nervous breakdown and using payday loans to fund a burgeoning cocaine habit. His only choice was to finally relinquish control and ask for help. In doing so he discovered a life beyond his wildest dreams.
This new way of life embraced letting stuff go. Giving things up. He discovered the power of rigorous honesty, how to live without relying on destructive behavioural patterns and the joy of letting people in instead of keeping them out.
Mark’s story is one of recovery and sobriety. It brilliantly articulates the societal pressures that can leave people feeling isolated and lost, and offers a path to finding your own sense of ‘good enough’. Perhaps Mark’s story can be the spark that ignites that journey for you, or at the very least a guide on how not to mess up your life. Either way, it’s definitely not a self-help book.
Murder in the gallowgate
Meet Detective Lola Harris, a tough woman with a good heart solving crimes in gritty Glasgow, in this gripping crime mystery with a massive twist.
Detective Lola Harris returns from a miserable solo holiday – an effort to get over her useless ex – only to find herself in charge of a high-stakes investigation.
She rushes to a crime scene in the historic Gallowgate neighbourhood. The smell in the basement is thick and sweet, even through Lola’s forensic mask.
The old wooden chair and the rope hanging from its arms are stained red. The earth below is saturated with blood. Six candleholders, their lights burned out, lend the scene an air of a completed ritual. And yet there is no sign of a body.
A smashed-up phone in the corner puts the investigators on the trail of a local politician who has vanished without trace and a controversial artist who died 30 years ago on a remote Hebridean island. Lola will have to work with the most obnoxious detective in Glasgow if she’s going to stop the killer from striking again.
Outrider
Jack Dunne will do anything to save his son.
A violent civil war. An unstoppable enemy. One road to freedom.
In the wake of a global conflict, foreign forces occupy part of Australia, quashing all but a few pockets of local resistance. The tense stalemate ends in 2034, when Jack Dunne reignites the war. Dunne is an Outrider, one of the last elite special operations soldiers in the Resistance. As the enemy prepare to eliminate the freedom fighters once and for all, he is tasked with his final mission.
If Dunne and his 11-year-old son achieve the impossible, and survive, they'll secure their future across the border in Free Australia. But the road to victory will be bloody.
The mystery of the crooked man
Meet Agatha Dorn, cantankerous archivist, grammar pedant, gin afficionado and murder mystery addict. When she discovers a lost manuscript by Gladden Green, the Empress of Golden Age detective fiction, Agatha's life takes an unexpected twist. She becomes an overnight sensation, basking in the limelight of literary stardom.
But Agatha's newfound fame takes a nosedive when the 'rediscovered' novel is exposed as a hoax. And when her ex-lover turns up dead, with a scrap of the manuscript by her side, Agatha suspects foul play.
Cancelled, ostracised and severely ticked off, Agatha turns detective to uncover the sinister truth that connects the murder and the fraudulent manuscript. But can she stay sober long enough to catch the murderer, or will Agatha become a whodunnit herself?
Currawong Creek
From the bestselling author of Brumby’s Run comes a heartwarming story of hope, sacrifice and the ultimate triumph of love.
Brisbane lawyer Clare Mitchell leads a structured, orderly life. That is until she finds herself the unlikely guardian of a small, troubled boy. In desperation, Clare takes Jack to stay at Currawong Creek, her grandfather’s horse stud in the foothills of the beautiful Bunya Mountains.
Here, life moves at a different pace and for Clare, it feels like coming home. Her granddad adores having them there, Jack loves the animals, and Clare finds herself falling hard for the handsome local vet.
But trouble is coming. The Pyramid Mining Company threatens to destroy the land Clare loves – and with it, her newfound happiness.
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The Whimsical World of Beatrix Potter
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Oh Miriam!
The girl with the red hair
All good people here
Recommended by
Michael
Team Leader Library Resources
There’s no filter when it comes to Miriam. Funny, naughty and endearingly eccentric!
Recommended by
Annie
Library Assistant
I found it hard to put the book down. Brave, heartbreaking and emotional.
Recommended by
Kellie
Children’s & Youth Librarian
Twisty, chilling, and intense! This book has you asking – What are your neighbours capable of when they think no one is watching?
Must reads
Thanks for having me by Emma Darragh
Recommended by
Lucy
Library Assistant
A mesmerising narrative of family, grief, guilt and motherhood, told through several generations of women in stories that intertwine to reveal truth and sorrow.
Shortlisted for the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize.
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