2012

Bookends Book Club

Reading List

Bookends yearly subscription: $360.00 Duration: February to November

Number of books in tubs: 12 Contact: Amanda Martimbianco or Belinda Owen Ph. 69622515 or email library@griffith.nsw.gov.au

Beloved by Toni Morrison: In the troubled years following the Civil War, the spirit of a murdered child haunts the Ohio home of a former slave. This angry, destructive ghost breaks mirrors, leaves its fingerprints in cake icing, and generally makes life difficult for Sethe and her family; nevertheless, the woman finds the haunting oddly comforting for the spirit is that of her own dead baby, never named, thought of only as Beloved.

Death in the Mountains by Lisa Clifford: When Australian author and journalist Lisa Clifford moved to Florence to be with her Italian husband, an unsolved murder in his family became part of her life. The more Lisa found out about it, the more intrigued she became – so much so that she was driven to investigate the tragic events of a century ago. Death in the Mountains is Lisa's brilliant recreation of the life and death of Artemio Bruni, and an evocation of the world of the Tuscan mountains in the early 20th century. It is both a murder mystery and a beautifully observed picture of a lost Italy.

Dog Boy by Eva Hornung: Winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction 2010. Abandoned in a big city at the onset of winter, a hungry four-year-old boy follows a stray dog to her lair. There in the rich smelly darkness, in the rub of hair, claws and teeth, he joins four puppies suckling at their mother’s teats. And so begins Romochka’s life as a dog. Weak and hairless, with his useless nose and blunt little teeth, Romochka is ashamed of what a poor dog he makes. The story of the child raised by beasts is timeless.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: In 1865, Lewis Carroll, wrote The Adventures of Alice, who journeys down a rabbit hole and into a whimsical underworld realm. Carroll’s playfulness-with language, with mathematical puzzles, with testy creatures such as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts-still confounds and teases lovers of fantasy fiction today. Alice acolytes continue to unravel the book's strange riddles, and constantly find new meaning in the unexpected underlying themes, from the trials of early adolescence to the value of non-sense.

NEW IN 2012

Don’t Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs - She Thinks I’m a Piano Player in a Whorehouse by Paul Carter: A take no prisoners approach to life has seen Paul Carter heading to some of the world's most remote, wild and dangerous places as a contractor in the oil business. Amazingly, he's survived (so far) to tell these stories from the edge of civilization, and reason.

Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom: Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds--two men, two faiths, two communities--that will inspire readers everywhere. Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival. Have a Little Faith is a book about a life's purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger: Her Fearful Symmetry is a haunting tale about the complications of love, identity, and sibling rivalry. After Elspeth Noblin bequeaths her London flat and its contents to the twin daughters of her estranged twin sister the 20-year-old dilettantes, Julie and Valentina, move to London. Historic Highgate Cemetery, which borders Elspeth's home, serves as an inspired setting as the twins become entwined in the lives of their neighbours. Niffenegger brings these quirky, troubled characters to marvellous life, as the story winds to its twisty conclusion.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey: Charlie Bucktin, a bookish thirteen year old, is startled one summer night by is visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in their small mining town, and he has come to ask for Charlie's help. Terribly afraid but desperate to impress, Charlie follows him into the night. Jasper takes him to his secret glade, where Charlie witnesses Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly he locks horns with his tempestuous mother, falls nervously in love, and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

NEW IN 2012

Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein: When Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper is summoned to Tina Barr’s apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, she finds a neighbour convinced that the young woman was assaulted. But the terrified victim, a conservator of rare books and maps, refuses to cooperate with investigators. Then another woman is found murdered in that same apartment with an extremely valuable book, believed to have been stolen. Featuring a cast of elite, erudite, and downright eccentric characters, and a complex trail of clues that will have you guessing until the final pages.

Mama Jude by Michael Sexton & Judy Steel: Despite plans to enjoy her retirement after working as a nurse for over three decades, Judy Steel found herself in Uganda, at the age of 58, providing medical aid to some of Africa's most disadvantaged people. Since 2000, she has returned every year for several months at a time, establishing a small hospital, health clinics for mothers and babies, a physiotherapy centre, literacy school, micro-loan bank and farming infrastructure, becoming known among the locals as 'Mama Jude'. This is the inspiring story of a dynamic and determined woman of a certain age making a powerful change to people's lives.

My Best Friend’s Girl by Dorothy Koomson: When Kamryn Ryn Matika gets a call from friend Adele Del Brannon, she heads to the hospital where Adele is dying. The two had been odd couple friends while attendingUniversity, but their friendship did not survive Del's admission of an affair with Ryn's fiancé Nate Turner. The affair did result, however, in the now-five-year-old Tegan, and Del has called Ryn to ask her to adopt the adorable girl. Ryn agrees, but must face down Del's stepmother, Muriel. She finds surprising help from new boss Luke Wiseman, who, after meeting her unceremoniously, loves Tegan, but the return of Nate, who doesn't know Tegan is his daughter, promises to reopen old wounds.

Lovesong by Alex Miller: Seeking shelter in a Parisian cafe from a sudden rainstorm, John Patterner meets the exotic Sabiha and his carefully mapped life changes forever. Resonant of the bestselling Conditions of Faith, Alex Miller’s keenly awaited new novel tells the deeply moving story of their lives together, and of how each came undone by desire. Told with all Miller’s distinctive clarity, intelligence and compassion, Lovesong is a pitch-perfect novel, a tender and enthralling story about the intimate lives of ordinary people. Like the truly great novelist he is, Miller locates the heart of his story in the moral frailties and secret passions of his all-too-human characters.

Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri: Hopscotching across 25 years, it begins when newlyweds Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli emigrate to Cambridge, Mass., in 1968, where Ashima immediately gives birth to a son, Gogol-a pet name that becomes permanent when his for-mal name, traditionally bestowed by the maternal grandmother, is posted in a letter from India, but lost in transit. Ashoke becomes a professor of engineering, but Ashima has a harder time assimilat-ing, unwilling to give up her ties to India. A leap ahead to the '80s finds the teenage Gogol ashamed of his Indian heritage and his un-usual name, which he sheds as he moves on to college at Yale and graduate school at Columbia, legally changing it to Nikhil.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi: In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret. Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule

Mystery Box by ??: New in 2012 The Mystery Box is sure to delight. 12 copies of one book will be wrapped in brown paper with its contents revealing itself as you read.

Here is your chance to NOT judge a book by it’s cover!

NEW IN 2012

Red Dog by Louis de Bernieres: Red Dog is a West Australian, a lovable friendly red kelpie who found widespread fame as a result of his habit of travelling all over Western Australia, hitching rides over thousands of miles, settling in places for months at a time and adopting new families before heading off again to the next destina-tion and another family - sometimes returning to say hello years later. Red Dog will delight readers and animal lovers of all ages.

NEW IN 2012

The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martín, makes his living by writing under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner. Zafón's novel is detailed and vivid, and David's narration is charming and funny, he is the hero of and the guide to this dark labyrinth that, by masterful design, remains thrilling and bewildering.

Shakespeare’s Wife by Germaine Greer: Greer’s real interest lies in tracing how the Shakespeare family could have survived. She meticulously traces the members of the Shakespeare and Hatha-way families, their acquaintances, relatives of their acquaintances and notable people in Stratford. Often reminding us of the facts other critics have ignored, as a result we get a portrait of life in Stratford circa 1600 on almost every level and in every aspect—the practice of medicine, the brewing of ale, birth, marriage, and burial. Greer provides an intriguing analysis that helps us understand more about the person Ann might have been.

Room by Emma Donoghue: In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. But Jack is different in a big way--he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Emma Donoghue's Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances.

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje: Twenty-five years after leaving his native Sri Lanka for the cool winters of Ontario, a chaotic dream of tropical heat and barking dogs pushes Michael Ondaatje to travel back home and revisit a childhood and a family he never fully understood. Along with his siblings and children, Ondaatje gathers rumours, anecdotes, poems, records and memories to piece together this fragmented portrayal of his family's past, his father's destructive alcoholism and the colourful stories and secrets of ancestors both disgraced and adored throughout centuries of Sri Lankan society.

NEW IN 2012

The Good Mayor by Andrew Nicoll: Tibo Krovic has been the mayor of Dot, a small town in an unnamed country on the Baltic Sea, for 20 years. He's hopelessly in love with his secretary, Agathe, who's miserable in a loveless marriage with her drunkard husband. After consulting a psychic, Agathe begins to see the good mayor in a new light, and Tibo gets up the courage to ask Agathe out for lunch. But being the good man he is, he finds it difficult to cross any other boundaries with a married woman, even as tension builds between them. Told with fantastical detail, delightful insights and a touch of humour, this fairytale like romance is a genuine treat.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents.

The Boat by Nam Le: From a Colombian slum to the streets of Tehran, seven characters in seven stories. The stories are so different from one another it is hard to believe all seven are the work of a single author. What they all have in common is that each one portrays its characters in a crisis that reveals resources of courage and resilience even he or she was not aware of. The stories concern what is arguably the deepest, most complex and most poignant of human relationships. The Boat catches people in moments of extremis and forced to grapple at the most fundamental level with who they are and what they want or believe.

The Floating Brothel by Sian Rees: In July 1789, 237 women convicts left England for Botany Bay in Australia on board a ship called The Lady Julian, destined to provide sexual services and a breeding bank for the men already there. This is the enthralling story of the women and their voyage. Based on painstaking research into contemporary sources such as letters and trial records The Floating Brothel brilliantly conjures up the sights, sounds and particularly the smells of life on board ship at the time and is populated by a cast of larger-than-life characters you will never forget.

The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide: Delia Bennet is the author of a series of household guides, but after unsuccessfully battling cancer, she knows it’s time to get her own house in order, both literally and emotionally. She decides that the best thing she can do while she is dying is to write about it, and thus compile the ultimate title in her series of guides. This is a novel in which the sublime and the ordinary rub shoulders: poetry and housework, cemeteries and chickens, mothering and lawnmowing. Fresh, witty, deeply moving – and a celebration of love, family and that place we call home – Delia’s unforgettable story will delight the reader until the very last page.

The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do: Anh Do nearly didn't make it to Australia. His entire family came close to losing their lives on the sea as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat. Life in Australia was hard but there was a loving extended family, and always friends and play and something to laugh about for Anh, his brother Khoa and their sister Tram. The Happiest Refugee tells the incredible, uplifting and inspiring life story of one of our favourite personalities. Tragedy, humour, heartache and unswerving determination - a big life with big dreams. Anh's story will move and amuse all who read it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer: The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. Based on Shaffer’s painstaking, lifelong research, it is a nostalgic portrayal of an era. However, it is the tragic stories of life under Nazi occupation that animate the novel and give it its urgency; furthermore, the novel explores the darker side of human nature

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: This glorious yet ultimately tragic social satire on the Jazz Age encapsulates the exuberance, energy and decadence of an era. After the war, the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire pursues wealth, riches and the lady he lost to another man with stoic determination. He buys a mansion across from her house and throws lavish parties to try and entice her. When Gatsby finally does reunite with Daisy Buchanan, tragic events are set in motion. Told through the eyes of his detached and omnipresent neighbour and friend, Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald's succinct and powerful prose hints at the destruction and tragedy that awaits.

NEW IN 2012

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school. The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters.

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty: Three years after Sophie Honeywell dumped Thomas Gordon she is bequeathed the house of his widowed aunt Connie on Scribbly Island, site of the Munro baby mystery. Thomas is the grandson of baby Enigma after she was found in 1932 by Connie who raised her after her parents abruptly disappeared, turning the mystery into a profitable tourist attraction. Sophie, who at 39 hears the ticking of her biological clock, is delighted with the house, despite some family opposition to her inheriting it, and intrigued by Connie's matchmaking from beyond the grave. Moriarty has created a cast of appealing characters that she deftly juggles through various plot threads.

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough: Twenty years on, Jane has a happy marriage and large family; Lizzy and Mr Darcy now have a formidable social reputation; Lydia has a reputation of quite another kind; Kitty is much in demand in London's parlours and ballrooms; but what of Mary? Mary is quietly celebrating her independence, having nursed her ailing mother for many years. She decides to write a book to bring the plight of the poor to everyone's attention. But with more resolve than experience, as she sets out to travel around the country, it's not only her family who are concerned about her.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson: Tom and Betsy Rath, a young couple three healthy children, a nice home and a steady income. They have every reason to be happy, but for some reason they are not. Trapped in the corporate rat race, Tom encounter something that will propel him on a life-changing voyage of self-discovery. Once a searing indictment of corporate culture and a testament to then during power of family, this is a deeply rewarding novel about the importance of taking responsibility for one's own life.

NEW IN 2012

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen: When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal—if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal—is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum’s hallowed halls.

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave: It is a warm morning in May 2007, and a Nigerian refugee calling herself Little Bee has just emerged, from an immigration detention centre in Essex. After a bittersweet encounter with a farmer and his wife, Little Bee embarks on a long journey through the English countryside to the front door of high-powered magazine editor Sarah O’Rourke and her Batman-obsessed son Charlie. Little Bee has nowhere else to turn and Sarah has her reasons for letting the girl stay. Despite every conceivable difference in background and experience, Sarah and Little Bee come to realise that they have a connection literally forged in blood, and that they must save themselves, and each other, from the cruelties of life.

The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey: Carey's inspired "history" of Kelly from his destitute youth until his death at age 26 is as genuine as a diamond in the rough. No reader will be left unmoved by this dramatic tale of a good-hearted young man whose destiny was determined by heredity and official bigotry and corruption; whose criminal deeds were motivated by gallantry and desperation; and whose exploits in eluding the police for almost two years transfixed a nation. The unschooled Kelly narrates through a series of letters he writes to the baby daughter he will never see. Conveyed in run-on sentences, with sparse punctuation and quirky grammar Carey makes use of Kelly’s uneducated thoughts.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: A magical love story and a story about the love of magic, set in a fantastical circus in the late nineteenth century where two magicians battle for supremacy. Open only at night, constructed entirely in black and white, the Cirque des Reves delights all who wander its circular paths and warm themselves at its bonfire. There are contortionists, performing cats, carousels and illusionists - all the trappings of an ordinary circus. But this is no conventional spectacle. The Night Circus is an extraordinary blend of fantasy and reality

NEW IN 2012

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, 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. In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.

Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner : Gildiner tells of her childhood in 1950s Lewiston, N.Y., a small town near Niagara Falls, in this hilarious and moving coming-of-age memoir. Deemed hyperactive by the town's pediatrician, at age four Gildiner was put to work at her father's pharmacy in an effort to harness her energy. Her stories of delivering prescriptions with her father's black deliveryman, Roy, are the most affecting parts of this book, with young Cathy serving as map reader for the illiterate but streetwise fellow, who acted as both protector and fellow adventurer.

Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson: A novel that tells of one woman's remarkable life. Nora Porteous flees her small-town family and stifling marriage and creates a new life for herself in London. In her seventies, she returns to Queensland to settle in her childhood home and discovers that everything is not as she remembers. Jessica Anderson won Miles Franklin award for this novel.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator that this millennium has yet seen. Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation

Acceptance

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon: The detective, Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. When he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Harper Lee explores the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a coming-of-age story as well as an anti-racist novel set during the depression.

The Absolutist by John Boyne: The Absolutist is a novel that examines the events of the Great War from the perspective of two young privates, both struggling with the complexity of their emotions and the confusion of their friendship.

Annabel by Kathleen Winter: The Blake’s lives begin to unravel when Jacinta gives birth to a hermaphrodite. Deciding the baby will be brought up as a boy - he's named Wayne, meanwhile, Jacinta's friend Thomasina, develops of the child's female identity.

NEW IN 2012

Delicious Reads

Pomegrante Soup by Marsha Mehran: The three Aminpour sisters escape the Iranian Revolution and make their way west to a small Irish village. There they take over an abandoned Italian bakery and open the Babylon Cafe. But can the provincial Irish welcome the "foreigners"?

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister: Delivering memorable story lines and characters while seducing the senses, Bauermeister's tale of food and hope is certain to satisfy.

Friendship Bread by Darien Gee: Friendship Bread begins with the mysterious present of starter bread batter and expands to show how the smallest gifts can change entire lives.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris: For the first time, here is a novel in which chocolate enjoys its true importance, emerging as a moral issue, as an agent of transformation - as well as a pleasure bordering on obsession.

NEW IN 2012

Resilience

The Help by Kathryn Stockett: An optimistic, uplifting novel set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff: Set in 1875, when one woman attempts to rid America of polygamy, The 19th Wife, develops two parallel stories, one of them a fictionalized account of historical fact, the other a modern day murder mystery.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini: It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives - the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness - are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute: A Town Like Alice tells of a young woman who miraculously survived a Japanese "death march" in World War II, and of an Australian soldier, also a prisoner of war, who offered to help her - even at the cost of his life.

NEW IN 2012

Sea Change

Four Seasons with a Grumpy Goat by Carol Altman: Add an odd assortment of neighbours and friends and you have atale about leaving the rat race behind, only to discover more about yourself than you would have found in years of city living.

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes: Frances Mayes - widely published poet, gourmet cook and travel writer - opens the door on a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside.

Henna for the Broken-Hearted by Sharell Cook: Sharell opts for a complete change of scene, travelling to India to do volunteer work. But reinventing herself is not as easy as it sounds, especially in the chaos and confrontation of India.

Au Revoir by Mary Moody: It is funny, warm and reflective, as Mary adapts to life as a single person in the Lot, one of the most remote and beautiful parts of France. Her account of an escape - with its exhilarating freedom, new experiences and chance for renewal - will inspire every reader to run away from home.

NEW IN 2012