For a thoughtful discussion about the lives of women and hidden family secrets…

Invented Lives by Andrea Goldsmith

It is the mid-1980s and 24-year-old Jewish book illustrator Galina Kogan and her mother leave Leningrad, leaving behind a tumultuous Soviet Bloc to make a new life in Melbourne, Australia. As Galina confronts the cultural differences of Melbourne life and the expectations placed on her as a newly arrived immigrant, she is drawn into the Morrow family – who have their own secrets to hide. Invented Lives tells a story of exile – exile from country, exile at home, and exile from one’s true self. It is a complex examination of love and family told by a masterful storyteller.

For a feel-good chat with long-standing friends…

The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta

When Rosie first meets Jimmy, she has walked away from life in Sydney, leaving behind the house that her father painstakingly rebuilt for his family but never saw completed. Two years later, Rosie returns to the house, and living there is Martha, the woman her father remarried before his death. Tentatively, these three tough-minded individuals become tangled up in each other’s lives. With a warm glow that comes from the effortless way Marchetta writes about the nourishing friendships that lie at the heart of this novel, this is ode to losing love and finding love, and the true nature of belonging makes for the perfect antidote to a world that can feel dark and cynical.

For fans of Sofia Coppola…

The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean

Part mystery, part coming of age story, The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone is set over the long hot summer of 1992, told from the perspective of a wonderful and precocious 11-year-old narrator, Tikka. The Van Apfel girls of the title are Tikka and her sister Laura’s friends and neighbours, and 1992 is the year those girls disappeared during a school concert held at the edge of the encroaching bushland surrounding their town. Blackly comic, sharply observed and wonderfully endearing, this is billed as an updated Picnic at Hanging Rock – a haunting coming-of-age story with a shimmering, unexplained mystery at its heart.

For book clubs who want messy relatable heroines…

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie Jenkins life is not going to plan: a ‘boyfriend’ who’s asked for a ‘break’, a boss who doesn’t seem to see her, and a family who don’t seem to listen (if it’s not Jesus or water rates, they’re not interested). Queenie is just trying to fit in two worlds that don’t really understand her. And when her mental health takes this turn for the worse, she’s forced to move back in with her parents. Perfect for fans of Insecure or Fleabag, Queenie sparkles with fresh wit and contemporary musings on the issues facing so many today: sexism, racism, emotional labour, heartbreak, and betrayal. Honest, loveable, flawed, and unapologetically herself, Queenie as a character who you can really root for, and who will stay with you long after you’ve finished the book.

For book clubs who want to be transported and immersed in something new…

The Forest of Wool and Steel by Natsu Miyashita

This rich and deeply immersive coming-of-age novel has been a hit in its native Japan. Set in a small village nestled among the mountains, it centres on 17-year-old Tomura who discovers his life’s passion when he first hears the hypnotic sound of a piano being tuned. It seeps into his soul and transports him to the forests, dark and gleaming, that surround his beloved village. Under the tutelage of three master piano-tuners – one humble, one cheery, one ill-tempered – Tomura embarks on his training, contemplating that unfathomable question: do I have what it takes? This warm and mystical story, with its ethereal descriptions of the art of piano-tuning, is for anyone looking to slow down in a fast-paced world, and for those searching for their calling.

For book clubs who like to be kept guessing…

Eight Lives by Susan Hurley

David Tran becomes the Golden Boy of Australian medical research and invents a drug that could transform immunology. Eight volunteers are recruited for the first human trial, but when David dies in baffling circumstances, motives are put under the microscope. Told from the perspectives of David’s friends, family and business associates, Eight Lives is a smart, sophisticated thriller that explores power, class and prejudice and will keep you engrossed until the last page.

For book clubs who like to read prize winners…

Spring by Ali Smith

This is the third book in Ali Smith’s ‘Seasonal Quartet’ (after Autumn and Winter) and it has been showered with accolades, with some critics out of the UK calling it the best in the series yet. Smith’s writing as always is ambitious and formally inventive; the basic set-up features two main storylines – one about an elderly TV director mourning the death of his friend and the other a detention centre worker who journeys north with a young girl named Florence – but this description is a disservice to the moving ways these two narratives intersect and allude to one another throughout the book. Spring alights on topics spanning British politics, immigration and borders, modernist literature, visual art and more. Though the book plumbs the venal depths of humanity’s evils, there is a hope underpinning all this: ‘The dawn breaks cold and still but, deep in the earth, things are growing.’

For a broad and wide-reaching discussion about a variety of topics…

Growing Up African in Australia edited by Maxine Beneba Clarke, Ahmed Yussuf & Magan Magan

Learning to kick a football in a suburban schoolyard. Finding your feet as a young black dancer. Discovering your grandfather’s poetry. Meeting Nelson Mandela at your local church … Welcome to African Australia. Featuring writing by African-diaspora Australians such as Faustina Agolley, Santilla Chingaipe, Carly Findlay and Khalid Warsame alongside entries by new writers to discover, the diverse stories in this collection elicit the whole gamut of emotions. Told with passion, power and poise, these stories will open your eyes and prompt passionate discussions about which ones made you laugh, made you cry, made you angry and made you hopeful for the future.

For green thumbs…

City of Trees: Essays on Life, Death and the Need for a Forest by Sophie Cunningham

One of our foremost cultural critics, Sophie Cunningham, turns her attention to the meaning of trees and our love of them in her moving and thought-provoking essay collection City of Trees. With subject matter that crosses vast distances and times, Cunningham moves through locales and subjects as disparate as Alcatraz, the Flemington Stock Route, Icelandic glaciers, the Dig Tree, and the death of her fathers. This is a powerful collection of nature, travel and memoir writing, set against the backdrop global climate change.