To celebrate the reopening of our State Library Victoria shop we asked our wonderful booksellers which book they were looking forward to recommending the most!

Claire Atherfold is recommending Medusa by Jessie Burton & illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill

Exiled to a far-flung island by the whims of the gods, Medusa has little company except the snakes that adorn her head instead of hair. But when a charmed, beautiful boy called Perseus arrives on the island, her lonely existence is disrupted with the force of a supernova, unleashing desire, love and betrayal… A dazzling, feminist retelling of the Greek myth.

Alex Gleihs is recommending The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry

Young real estate agent Madison May is shocked when a client at an open house says these words to her. The man, a stranger, seems to know far too much about her, and professes his love - shortly before he murders her. Young journalist Felicity Staples knows she must take on the assignment to research Madison May’s shocking murder, but the crime seems random and the suspect is in the wind. That is, until Felicity spots the killer on the subway, right before he vanishes. Soon, Felicity senses her entire universe has shifted. No one remembers Madison May, or Felicity’s encounter with the mysterious man.

Tristen Brudy is recommending In Moonland by Miles Allinson

In present-day Melbourne, a man attempts to piece together the mystery of his father’s apparent suicide, as his young family slowly implodes. At the ashram of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in 1976, a man searching for salvation must confront his capacity for violence and darkness. And in a not-too-distant future, a woman with a life-altering decision to make travels through a climate-ravaged landscape to visit her estranged father. In Moonland is a portrait of three generations, each grappling with their own mortality.

Lucie Dess is recommending The Sad Ghost Club Volume Two by Lize Meddings

When two strangers meet at a party and realise they both feel different from everyone else there, they start the The Sad Ghost Club - a secret society for the anxious and alone, a club for people who think they don’t belong. But when a third ghost wants to join the club, things get a bit more complicated. Can the two ghosts overcome their insecurities and uncertainties in their new friendship, and find a way to welcome new members to the club?

Sean O'Beirne is recommending Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson

The narrator of these interlinked stories is a young, unnamed man, reeling from his addiction to heroin and alcohol, his mind at once clouded and made brilliantly lucid by these drugs. In the course of his adventures, he meets an assortment of people, who seem as alienated and confused as he; sinners, misfits, the lost, the damned, the desperate and the forgotten. Out of their bleak, seemingly random lives, Denis Johnson creates modern-day parables of a harsh and devastating beauty.

Alex M is recommending All About Yves: Notes from a Transition by Yves Rees

What happens when, aged 30, you understand you’re transgender? All About Yves tells their moving journey of re-becoming, at the same time laying bare the messiness of bodies, gender and identity. It shares the challenges and joys of being transgender in Australia today, and reveals how trans experiences like Yves’ can teach all of us about what it means to be man or woman.

Tracy Hwang is recommending Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura (translated by Philip Gabriel)

In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors are shining. At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there’s a catch: if they don’t leave the castle by five o'clock, they will all die.