For book clubs wanting to laugh-cry…

Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Sutano

When Meddy Chan accidentally kills her blind date, she turns to her aunties for help. Their meddling set her up on the date so they kind of owe her. Hiding this goddamn dead body is going to be harder than they thought – especially when her family’s wedding business has THE biggest wedding of the year happening right now.

It turns out the wedding venue just happens to be managed by Meddy’s ex, aka the one who got away. It’s the worst time to see him again, or…is it? Can Meddy finally find love and make her overbearing family happy?

For book clubs interested in exciting emerging authors…

Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau

Throughout a childhood spent moving between different countries, one thing was constant for Leen. The local shopping centre. Within those complexes the familiar landscape of logos, the bright lights, the climate controlled environment and the interactions between workers and customers never changed. So, when Leen decides to open a healing studio, the Topic Heights shopping complex is the perfect location to build a business and connections.

Jamie Marina Lau brings to life a world that is devastatingly close to our own. A world where consumerism drives us to buy things we don’t need, where otherness can be used to manipulate, where a person’s worth is measured by the role they play or the way they look and where protective services isn’t about protecting others from violence but viciously punishing those who step outside the lines.

For book clubs who enjoy a moving memoir…

As Beautiful As Any Other by Kaya Wilson

When Kaya Wilson came out to his parents as transgender, a year after a near-death surfing accident and just weeks before his father’s death, he was met with a startling family history of concealed queerness and shame.

As Beautiful As Any Other weaves this legacy together with intimate examinations of the forces that have shaped Wilson’s life, and his body: vulnerability and power, grief and trauma, science and narrative. In this powerful and lyrical memoir, he makes a case for the strength we find when we confront the complexities of our identity with compassion.

For book clubs seeking adventure and answers to decades-old secrets…

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

The life of Marian Graves has always been marked by a lust for freedom and danger. In 1950, she embarks on her life’s dream - to fly a Great Circle around the globe, pole to pole. But after a crash landing she finds herself stranded on the Antarctic ice without enough fuel. With a fearsome piece of water separating her from completion of the Circle, she writes one last entry in her logbook.

Half a century later, Hadley Baxter, a brilliant, troubled Hollywood starlet is irresistibly drawn to play Marian Graves, a role that will lead her to probe the deepest mysteries of the vanished pilot’s life.

For book clubs interested in hearing voices across time…

Flock edited by Ellen van Neerven

This wide-ranging and captivating anthology showcases both the power of First Nations writing and the satisfaction of a good short story. Curated by award-winning author Ellen van Neerven, Flock roams the landscape of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling, bringing together voices from across the generations.

Featuring established authors such as Tony Birch, Melissa Lucashenko and Tara June Winch, and rising stars such as Adam Thompson and Mykaela Saunders, Flock confirms the ongoing resonance and originality of First Nations stories.

For book clubs who lean into genre jumping…

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks. But the Grand Season has just begun and already Nina’s debut has gone disastrously awry. She has always struggled to control her telekinesis: the haphazard manifestations of her powers have long made her the subject of gossip - malicious neighbours even call her the Witch of Oldhouse.

But Nina’s life is about to change, for there is a new arrival in town: Hector Auvray, the renowned entertainer, who has used his own telekinetic talent. Under his tutelage, Nina’s talent blossoms - as does her love for the great man. But great romances are for fairy-tales.

For book clubs interested in intergenerational tales…

China Room by Sunjeev Sahota

Mehar, a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. She and her sisters-in-law, married to three brothers in a single ceremony, spend their days hard at work in the family’s ‘china room’, sequestered from contact with the men. When Mehar develops a theory as to which of them is hers, a passion is ignited that will put more than one life at risk.

Spiralling around Mehar’s story is that of a young man who in 1999 travels from England to the now-deserted farm, its ‘china room’ locked. In enforced flight from the traumas of his adolescence - his experiences of addiction, racism, and estrangement from the culture of his birth - he spends a summer in painful contemplation and recovery.

For book clubs reading powerful stories based on true events…

Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss

Gundagai, 1852. The powerful Murrumbidgee River surges through town leaving death and destruction in its wake. Wagadhaany is one of the lucky ones. She survives. But is her life now better than the fate she escaped? Forced to move away from her miyagan, she lives each day with her broken heart calling to home.

When she meets Wiradyuri stockman Yindyamarra, Wagadhaany’s heart slowly begins to heal. But still, she dreams of a better life, away from the degradation of being owned. She longs to set out along the river of her ancestors, in search of lost family and country. Can she find the courage to defy the White man’s law? And if she does, will it bring hope … or heartache?

For book clubs who enjoy poetry and exploring personal connections…

I Said The Sea Was Folded by Erik Jensen

Erik Jensen is an award-winning journalist, biographer and screenwriter. These poems announce a new phase in his work. They are startling in their simplicity and their honesty - reminiscent of Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson and Seamus Heaney.

The poems chart the first three years of Jensen’s relationship with his partner, a non-binary composer and musician. They are love poems, written against the complexity of understanding another person. Together they form a fragmentary memoir of hope, disagreement and love.