In Conversation with Monica McInerney

Public Libraries NSW and City of Parramatta Libraries presents Monique Akauola from Sutherland Libraries, chatting with bestselling Australian author Monica McInerney as she talks about her new family drama ‘The Godmothers’.

‘I don’t want two wishy-washy godmothers,’ Jeannie had said that afternoon in the country hospital when Eliza was only a day old. ‘No dolls. No pink dresses. Just lots of adventures. Lots of spoiling. The pair of you like two mighty warriors protecting her at every step.’

Eliza Miller grew up in Australia as the only daughter of a troubled young mother, but with the constant support of two watchful godmothers, Olivia and Maxie. Despite her tricky childhood, she always felt loved and secure. Until, just before her eighteenth birthday, a tragic event changed her life.

Thirteen years on, Eliza is deliberately living as safely as possible, avoiding close relationships and devoting herself to her job. Out of the blue, an enticing invitation from one of her godmothers prompts a leap into the unknown.

Within a fortnight, Eliza finds herself in the middle of a complicated family in Edinburgh. There’s no such thing as an ordinary day any more. Yet, amidst the chaos, Eliza begins to blossom. She finds herself not only hopeful about the future, but ready to explore her past, including the biggest mystery of all – who is her father?

Set in Australia, Scotland, Ireland and England, The Godmothers is a great big hug of a book that will fill your heart to bursting. It is a moving and perceptive story about love, lies, hope and sorrow, about the families we are born into and the families we make for ourselves.

This FREE online author talk will be presented via Zoom with a Q & A session at the end.
Book now or click on the image above.
This event is a collaboration between multiple NSW Public Libraries’ and in association with Penguin Books Australia.
Copies of the book can be purchased online from Booktopia or from your local bookshop.

Losing Kate

losing-kate

Losing Kate by Kylie Kaden

Summary

This mesmerising debut is part love story, part mystery, telling the captivating story of two lovers torn apart by tragedy and the secrets they kept of one devastating night.

I’m the most authentic version of myself when I’m around Jack. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and our relationship was always one of mudpies and mocking.

Then everything changed.

Beautiful Kate, my best friend, disappeared on a moonlit beach after Jack dumped her for me. Jack was a suspect and, sure of his innocence, I lied to protect him. I know Jack didn’t kill her. Our betrayal did.

Thirteen years later, I am thirty, childless and single, attempting to renovate my life rescuing a rundown worker’s cottage. All is as it should be in my safe little world – until Jack buys the vacant lot behind my house… and the feelings that we buried all those years ago – the guilt, the love and the pain – resurface.

We can’t keep running away from the past – and to move forward we have to know what really happened to Kate.

Comments

What a FANTASTIC book! I can’t believe it is a debut novel.

I couldn’t stop reading it and finished it in one sitting.

The author very skillfully switches between past and present, pulling you from one time to the other at just the right moment.

This book has everything a great book should have; interesting plot, great characters, romance, mystery and family ties.

A MUST read.

Another great addition to enjoyable Aussie Fiction.

Read by

Jody

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Walkley Book Award Longlist 2014

The Walkley Book Award celebrates the value and importance of long form journalism, acknowledging the proud line-up of Australian writers who have taken subjects of enduring topicality and consequence from news bulletins, eye-witness reporting, investigations and historical records and provided readers with expanded factual detail, revelation and greater clarity of analysis in book form. (cited from http://walkleys.com/awards/walkleys/walkley-book-award-2/)

This year the longlist for this category is here and you can borrow or reserve any of those titles by going through Parramatta City Library’s online catalogue.

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The Lost Child by Suzanne McCourt

The lost child

Sylvie is five. It’s the 1950’s and she lives in Burley Point, a fishing village south of the Coorong on Australia’s wild southern coast. She worships her older brother Dunc. She tries to make sense of her brooding mother, and her moody father who abandons the family to visit The Trollop, Layle Lewis, who lives across the lagoon. It’s hard to keep secrets in a small town, but when Dunc goes missing, Sylvie is terrified that she is the cause.

This is Suzanne McCourt’s first novel and what a great book it was. I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. This is the book I am going to tell everyone they MUST read. 5 out of 5  stars. Jody

 

Book Review – Act of Faith

 

aaaAct of Faith by Kelly Gardiner

Young Adult Fiction

 

 

BOOK SUMMARY

England, 1640. Sixteen-year-old Isabella is forced to flee her home when her father’s radical ideas lead him into a suicidal stand against Oliver Cromwell’s army. Taking refuge in Amsterdam and desperate to find a means to survive, Isabella finds work with an elderly printer, Master de Aquila, and his enigmatic young assistant, Willem. When Master de Aquila travels to Venice to find a publisher brave enough to print his daring new book, Isabella accompanies him and discovers a world of possibility – where women work alongside men as equal partners, and where books and beliefs are treasured. But in a continent torn apart by religious intolerance, constant danger lurks for those who don’t watch their words. And when the agents of the Spanish Inquisition kidnap de Aquila to stop him printing his book, Isabella and Willem become reluctant allies in a daring chase across Europe to rescue him from certain death.

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