FICTION

For a crime thriller to keep you guessing…

55 by James Delargy

It is a scorching hot day when a bloodied, injured man stumbles into Police Sergeant Chandler Jenkins’ station. The man, Gabriel, tells Jenkins he was drugged and driven to a cabin in the mountains and tied up in iron chains. The man who took him was called Heath. Heath told Gabriel he was going to be number 55. His 55th victim.

As a manhunt is launched, Heath himself turns up at the station and tells Jenkins the same story; only, he was taken by a man called Gabriel.

Two suspects. Two stories. One liar.

For book clubs who like to discuss diverse social dynamics…

Room for a Stranger by Melanie Cheng

Meg, an Australian woman in her late seventies, lives along in her home after the death of her sister. After a terrifying home invasion, she advertises for a lodger. Enter Andy, a financially struggling student from Hong Kong. What follows is a contemporary Australian novel that explores such topics as racism, cultural attitudes to the elderly, mental health, and poverty through the lens of these unlikely housemates.

For a witty and incisive perspective on technology and artificial intelligence…

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding. Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London, where Turing still lives and Britain lost the Falklands war. When Charlie purchases Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans, he co-designs Adam’s personality with Miranda, the girl he is in love with. But Adam is near-perfect; beautiful, strong and clever, and a love triangle between the three soon forms…

NON-FICTION

For gripping true stories on the complexity of humanity…

Stop Being Reasonable by Eleanor Gordon-Smith

What if you’re not who you think you are? What if you don’t really know the people closest to you? And what if your most deeply-held beliefs turn out to be…wrong?

Eleanor Gordon-Smith’s Stop Being Reasonable takes a look at some fascinating true stories – Susie realises her husband harbours a terrible secret; Dylan leaves the cult he’s been raised in since birth, to name a couple – and examines the limits of human reason. An illuminating exploration of the place where philosophy and real life meet.

For book clubs interested in social dynamics and feminism…

Women’s Work: A Personal Reckoning with Labour, Motherhood, and Privilege by Megan K. Stack

For centuries, women have undertaken an overwhelming share of the labour required to keep people alive; through care-giving, home-running and all that they entail. Women’s Work is a personal memoir and much-needed feminist examination of this phenomenon from journalist Megan K. Stack.

For those looking to explore more in Australian studies…

Australia Day by Stan Grant

A sad, wise, beautiful, reflective and troubled book, Australia Day asks the questions that have to be asked, that no else seems to be asking. Who are we? What is our country? How do we move forward from here? Grant gives an honest, direct examination of the country’s discourse around Australia Day, and the indigenous struggle for identity and belonging in Australia.