Hawkesbury Library Service Deerubbin Centre 300 George Street (PO Box 146) Windsor NSW 2756

Phone: (02) 4560 4460 Facsimile: (02) 4560 4472 Email: library@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

The eye of the sheep – Sophie Laguna (10 copies)

“Ned was beside me, his messages running easily through him, with space between each one, coming through him like water. He was the go-between, going between the animal kingdom and this one. I watched the waves as they rolled and crashed towards us,

one after another, never stopping, always changing. I knew what was making them come, I had been there and I would always know."

Meet Jimmy Flick. He's not like other kids. He finds a lot of the adult world impossible to understand - especially why his Dad gets so angry with him. Jimmy's mother Paula is the only one who can manage him. She teaches him how to count sheep so that he can fall sleep. She holds him tight enough to stop his cells spinning. It is only Paula who can keep Jimmy out of his father' s way.

But when Jimmy's world falls apart, he has no one else to turn to. He alone has to navigate the unfathomable world and make things right.

The no. 1 Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith (10 copies)

The beloved first novel in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, now available for the first time in hardcover, tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to ―help people with

problems in their lives.‖ Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, Mma Ramotswe is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart–and lands her in danger–is that of a missing eleven-year-old boy who may have been snatched by witch doctors.

Mao’s last dancer – Li Cunxin (8 copies) From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to

be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of

events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice.

Spirit house – Mark Dapin (9 copies) David is thirteen and confused. His mum has left with her lover and dumped David on his grandparents. David’s grandfather,

Jimmy, is seventy. He spends his days at the social club grumbling with his three best friends, all of them Jewish-Australian survivors of the enforced labour camps of the WWII Thai–Burma Railroad. But behind their playful backbiting and irresistible wit,

Jimmy and his friends are haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, and the only person Jimmy can confide in is a thirteen-year-old from a different world… Both powerful and deeply moving, Spirit House tells an intense story of the fall of Singapore and life as a Japanese POW, of the

bonds of friendship and the bonds of grief, and of a young boy making sense of growing up while old men try to live with their past.

The time traveler’s wife – Audrey Niffenegger (8 copies) This extraordinary, magical novel is the story of Clare and Henry who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was

thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into

his past or future. His disappearances are spontaneous and his experiences are alternately harrowing and amusing. The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's passionate love for each other with grace and humour. Their

struggle to lead normal lives in the face of a force they can neither prevent nor control is intensely moving and entirely un forgettable.

Hawkesbury Library Service Book Club Kits

Hawkesbury Library Service Deerubbin Centre 300 George Street (PO Box 146) Windsor NSW 2756

Phone: (02) 4560 4460 Facsimile: (02) 4560 4472 Email: library@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

Catch-22 – Joseph Heller (10 copies) At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his

schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if

Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he's committed to flying, he's trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its tit le: a man is considered insane if he willingly

continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he's sane and therefore, ineligible to be relieved.

The feel-good hit of the year – Liam Pieper (10 copies)

Liam Pieper was raised by his bohemian parents to believe in freedom and creativity, and that there's nothing wrong with smoking a little marijuana to make life easier. Nothing if not precocious, he used these lessons to develop a fledgling drug habit and a

thriving business selling pot from the back of his pushbike. Liam's adventures as a teen entrepreneur taught him many valuable skills, like how best to enrage a deranged jujitsu master, and

how to negotiate pocket money with his parents based on how much he was charging them for an ounce. But from these highs (chemical and otherwise), Liam's life began to spiral down to some striking lows. After a family tragedy and then his arrest on several counts of possession and trafficking, Liam had to pause and ask himself: How the hell did I get here?

This is the story of how he got there – from muddled flower child to petty criminal to amoral coke monster – and of how he finally found some kind of way out.

Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng (10 copies)

From the author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb

of Cleveland, everything is planned — from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by

the rules. Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother — who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that

threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster

All the light we cannot see – Anthony Doerr (10 copies)

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis

occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle

lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives o f Marie-

Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

Narrow road to the deep north – Richard Flanagan (10 copies)

Richard Flanagan's story — of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife — journeys from

the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Taking its title from 17th-century haiku poet Basho's travel journal, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is about the impossibility of love. At its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943. As the day builds to its horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of his fellow POWs, a man is killed for no reason, and a love story unfolds.

Hawkesbury Library Service Deerubbin Centre 300 George Street (PO Box 146) Windsor NSW 2756

Phone: (02) 4560 4460 Facsimile: (02) 4560 4472 Email: library@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

The unknown terrorist – Richard Flanagan (10 copies) What would you do if you turned on the television and saw you were the most wanted terrorist in the country? Gina Davies is about

to find out when, after a night spent with an attractive stranger, she becomes a prime suspect in the investigation of an attempted terrorist attack. In The Unknown Terrorist, one of the most brilliant writers working in the English language today turns his attention to the most timely of subjects — what our leaders tell us about the threats against us, and how we cope with living in fear. Chilling,

impossible to put down, and all too familiar, The Unknown Terrorist is a relentless tour de force that paints a devastating p icture of a contemporary society gone haywire, where the ceaseless drumbeat of terror alert levels, newsbreaks, and fear of the unknown

pushes a nation ever closer to the breaking point.

Everything is illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer (10 copies)

A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, however, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into new forms; a 'blind' old man haunted by memories of the war; and an undersexed guide dog named

Sammy Davis, Jr, Jr. What they are looking for seems elusive - a truth hidden behind veils of time, language and the horrors of war. What they find turns all their worlds upside down…

The dive from Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer (10 copies)

Carrie Bell was born and raised in Wisconsin. She's had the same best friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend for as long as anyone can remember. She is already quietly bored with Mike when he is horrifically injured in a

diving accident at Clausen's Reservoir. Now the future that Carrie was only beginning to rebel against looks set in stone. Everyone thinks they know what Carrie will - and ought to - do. But Carrie is caught in a maze of moral dilemmas and is forced to question everything she thought she knew about herself. It is a moment of terrifying confusion, but also of mesmerising possibility.

The color purple – Alice Walker (10 copies) The Color Purple is a classic. With over a million copies sold in the UK alone, it is hailed as one of the all-time 'greats' of literature,

inspiring generations of readers. Set in the deep American South between the wars, it is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls 'father', she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister

Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker - a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually, Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past

and reuniting her with those she loves.

The life of Pi – Yann Martel (10 copies)

Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, a Tamil boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. This outlandish story is only the core of a

deceptively complex three-part novel about, ultimately, memory as a narrative and about how we choose truths.

The inheritance of loss – Kiran Desai (10 copies) The Inheritance of Loss is Kiran Desai's extraordinary Man Booker Prize winning novel.

High in the Himalayas sits a dilapidated mansion, home to three people, each dreaming of another time. The judge, broken by a world too messy for justice, is haunted by his past. His orphan granddaughter has fallen in love with her handsome tutor, desp ite

their different backgrounds and ideals. The cook's heart is with his son, who is working in a New York restaurant, mingling with an underclass from all over the globe as he seeks somewhere to call home. Around the house swirl the forces of revolution and change. Civil unrest is making itself felt, stirring up inner conflicts as powerful

as those dividing the community, pitting the past against the present, nationalism against love, a small place against the troubles of a big world.

Hawkesbury Library Service Deerubbin Centre 300 George Street (PO Box 146) Windsor NSW 2756

Phone: (02) 4560 4460 Facsimile: (02) 4560 4472 Email: library@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

A man’s got to have a hobby – William McInnes (10 copies)

William McInnes is a talented writer and a natural storyteller. A tail-end baby boomer, he recalls summer holidays that seemed to go on forever, when he and his mates would walk down to fish in the bay; a time when the Aussie battler stood as the local Labor candidate and looked out for his mates; and a time when the whole family would rush into the lounge room to watch a new

commercial on TV. He writes about his father - a strong character who talks to the furniture, dances with William's mother in the kitchen, and spends

his free time fixing up the house and doing the best for his family. In William's writing you can hear his father speaking and listen to his mother singing.

This is a book about people who aren't famous but should be. It's about cane toads and families, love and hope and fear, laughter, death and life. Most of all, it is a realistic, down-to-earth book by a man who had a great time growing up. His warmth and humour come through on every page. This Australian memoir tells of a time that will be familiar to many readers and a delight for all.

A thousand splendid suns – Khaled Hosseini (10 copies) Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history, and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the

salvation to be found in love. Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly

together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them—in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul—they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.

With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love—or even the memory of love—that is often the key to survival.

We need to talk about Kevin – Lionel Shriver (10 copies) Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high

school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific

rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving

him so nihilistically off the rails.

The dressmaker – Rosalie Ham (8 copies)

After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage returns to the small Australian town she was banished from as a child. She plans only to check on her ailing mother and leave. But Tilly decides to stay, and though she is

still an outcast, her lush, exquisite dresses prove irresistible to the prim women of Dungatar. Through her fashion business, her friendship with Sergeant Farrat—the town’s only policeman, who harbors an unusual passion for fabrics—and a budding romance with Teddy, the

local football star whose family is almost as reviled as hers, she finds a measure of grudging acceptance. But as her dresses begin to arouse competition and envy in town, causing old resentments to surface, it becomes clear that Tilly’s mind is set on a darker design: exacting revenge on those who wronged her, in the most spectacular fashion.

The mountain – Drusilla Modjeska (8 copies)

In 1968 Papua New Guinea is on the brink of independence, and everything is about to change. Amidst the turmoil filmmaker

Leonard arrives from England with his Dutch wife, Rika, to study and film an isolated village high in the mountains. The vill agers'

customs and art have been passed down through generations, and Rika is immediately struck by their paintings on a cloth made of

bark. Rika and Leonard are also confronted with the new university in Moresby, where intellectual ambition and the idealism of youth

are creating friction among locals such as Milton - a hot-headed young playwright - and visiting westerners, such as Martha, to whom

Rika becomes close. But it is when Rika meets brothers Jacob and Aaron that all their lives are changed for ever. Drusilla Modjeska's

sweeping novel takes us deep into this fascinating, complex country, whose culture and people cannot escape the march of

modernity that threatens to overwhelm them. It is a riveting story of love, loss, grief and betrayal.

Hawkesbury Library Service Deerubbin Centre 300 George Street (PO Box 146) Windsor NSW 2756

Phone: (02) 4560 4460 Facsimile: (02) 4560 4472 Email: library@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

The Kookaburra Creek Cafe – Sandie Docker (8 copies) For Hattie, the cafe has been her refuge for the last fifty years – her second chance at a happy ending after her dreams of being a

star were shattered. But will the ghosts of her past succeed in destroying everything she’s worked so hard to build? For Alice, the cafe is her livelihood. After Hattie took her in as a teenager, Alice has slowly forged a quiet life as the ca fe’s manager (and chief cupcake baker). But with so many tragedies behind her, is it too late for Alice’s story to have a happy ending?

For Becca, a teenager in trouble, the cafe could be the new start she yearns for. That is, if she can be persuaded to stop running from her secrets. Can Becca find a way to believe in the kindness of strangers, and accept that this small town could be the place

where she finally belongs?

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine – Gail Honeyman (8 copies) Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing

in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the

kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

.

The handmaid’s tale – Margaret Atwood (8 copies) Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to

food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with

her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...

The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion (10 copies)

Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially challenged professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. And so, in the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a

sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers. Rosie Jarman is all these things. She also is strangely beguiling, fiery, and intelligent. And while Don quickly disqualifies her as a candidate for the Wife Project, as a DNA

expert Don is particularly suited to help Rosie on her own quest: identifying her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on the Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simsion (10 copies)

In this highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Rosie Project, Don Tillman and his new wife, Rosie, find themselves with a new and unexpected ―project‖—a baby on the way. When he and Rosie moved to New York City, Don was willing to make a few adjustments to his rigidly structured lifestyle. But nothing could have prepared him for the arrival

of Bud (baby under development). Soon Rosie is overwhelmed by Don’s overzealous research and retreats into her thesis studies. Luckily, Gene moves in to provide his trademark advice, but not all goes according to plan. As Don evades arrest, joins

a research project on lesbian moms, battles an intrusive social worker, and attempts to invent a soundproof crib, he completely loses track of the most important project of all: Rosie. And when Rosie threatens to move back to Australia without him, Don must enlist all of his exceptional brain capacity to win her, and Bud, back for good.

Hawkesbury Library Service Deerubbin Centre 300 George Street (PO Box 146) Windsor NSW 2756

Phone: (02) 4560 4460 Facsimile: (02) 4560 4472 Email: library@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

Burial rites – Hannah Kent (9 copies)

A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829. Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first

avoids Agnes. Only Toti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

In cold blood – Truman Capote (10 copies)

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by

blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no

clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers,

he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding

poignant insights into the nature of American violence. With the publication of this book, Capote permanently ripped through the

barrier separating crime reportage from serious literature. As he reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the

capture, trial, and execution of the killers, Capote generates suspense and empathy. The novel was the basis for Capote, a 2005

movied starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won both an Oscar and the Golden Globe Award for his performance as Truman

Capote.

Educated – Tara Westover (10 copies) An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from

Cambridge University. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her ―head-for-the-hills‖ bag. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and

healer, and in the winter she salvaged metal in her father’s junkyard. Her father distrusted the medical establishment, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. The family was so isolated from mainstream society there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when an older brother became violent. When another brother got himself into college and came

back with news of the world beyond the mountain, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. She taught herself enough mathematics, grammar, and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. There, she studied psychology, politics,

philosophy, and history, learning for the first time about pivotal world events like the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University.

Life after life – Kate Atkinson (10 copies) On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath.

On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have

plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization. Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant—this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions.

Becoming – Michelle Obama (10 copies) In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Hawkesbury Library Service Deerubbin Centre 300 George Street (PO Box 146) Windsor NSW 2756

Phone: (02) 4560 4460 Facsimile: (02) 4560 4472 Email: library@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

Boy swallows universe – Trent Dalton (10 copies) Eli Bell’s life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail, and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli’s life is Slim—a notorious felon and national record-holder for successful prison escapes—who watches over Eli and August,

his silent genius of an older brother. Exiled far from the rest of the world in Darra, a neglected suburb populated by Polish and Vietnamese refugees, this twelve-year-old boy with an old soul and an adult mind is just trying to follow his heart, learn what it takes to be a good man, and train for a glamorous career in journalism. Life, however, insists on throwing obstacles in Eli’s path—

most notably Tytus Broz, Brisbane’s legendary drug dealer. But the real trouble lies ahead. Eli is about to fall in love, face off against truly bad guys, and fight to save his mother from a certain

doom—all before starting high school.

The women in black – Madeleine St John (10 copies) Written by a superb novelist of contemporary manners, Ladies in Black is a fairytale which illuminates the extraordinariness of

ordinary lives. The women in black are run off their feet, what with the Christmas rush and the summer sales that follow. But it’s Sydney in the 1950s, and there’s still just enough time left on a hot and frantic day to dream and scheme…

By the time the last marked-down frock has been sold, most of the staff of the Ladies’ Cocktail section at F. G. Goode’s have been launched into slightly different careers. With the lightest touch and the most tender of comic instincts, Madeleine St John conjures a vanished summer of innocence. Ladies in Black is a great novel, a lost Australian classic.

Emma – Jane Austen (10 copies) Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée Harriet Smith, her carefully

laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.

A man called Ove – Frederick Backman (10 copies) Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must

Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of

unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.

A confederacy of dunces – John Kennedy Toole (10 copies) A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this is Ignatius J.

Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his

mission - and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with...

Hawkesbury Library Service Deerubbin Centre 300 George Street (PO Box 146) Windsor NSW 2756

Phone: (02) 4560 4460 Facsimile: (02) 4560 4472 Email: library@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel (10 copies) England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum.

Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportun ist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in

his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what wil l be the price of his triumph?

.