Top picks for book clubs this month
Australian fiction | The Sitter by Angela O'Keeffe
Paris, 2020. A writer is confined to her hotel room during the early days of the pandemic, struggling to finish a novel about Hortense Cezanne, wife and sometime muse of the famous painter. Dead for more than a century, Hortense has been reawakened by this creative endeavour, and now shadows the writer through the locked-down city. But Hortense, always subject to the gaze of others, is increasingly intrigued by the woman before her. Who is she and what event hides in her past?
Heartbreaking and perfectly formed, The Sitter explores the tension between artist and subject, and between the stories told about us and the stories we choose to tell.
International fiction | The Trackers by Charles Frazier
Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he's landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.
A wealthy art lover named John Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper-and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives.
One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of Florida, Val's search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.
Crime fiction | Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen
Saffy Huntley-Oliver is beautiful, charming, rich, and in her spare time she's a serial killer. For the past fifteen years she's been hunting down and killing bad men: rapists, murderers, domestic abusers. As a hobby, it's not as Instagrammable as baking, but at least it's better for your thighs. The problem is, that it's hard to sustain a healthy, balanced heterosexual relationship when you're expecting to have to kill your boyfriend at any moment.
That's why she's decided to look for a good man instead, preferably one who shares her interests. Jon Desrosiers, with his campaigning podcast, perfect bone structure and adorably messy hair, could be just the guy for her. As the creator of a hugely popular true-crime podcast, he has to delve deep into the psyches of monsters, though he's always been on the side of justice. So begins a tale of obsession as Saffy uses every trick in the book to get her man. Regardless of the cost to human life...
Romance fiction | The Summer Girl by Elle Kennedy
College student Cassie Soul hasn't spent an entire summer in Avalon Bay in years, not since her parents divorced and her mother spitefully whisked her away to Boston. Now that her grandmother is selling the boardwalk hotel that's been in their family for five decades, Cassie returns to the quaint beach town, excited to spend time with family, ring in her twenty-first birthday. She's ready for breathless, heart-pounding passion. And on her first night in town, she finds the perfect candidate: Tate Bartlett, Avalon Bay's fun-loving golden boy.
Tate, sailing instructor and lovable player, is no stranger to flings. In fact, he's always down for a good time. But . . . maybe not this time? The moment he meets Cassie, he knows she's not the girl you play games with, and the last thing he wants to do is risk breaking her heart. So, despite his attraction to her, he turns her down. But that awkward hiccup doesn't stop a friendship from developing between the two. Only it isn't long before he's wondering if he made a huge mistake. Cassie is gorgeous, hilarious, and, frankly, the coolest person he's ever met. He can't deny it anymore: he wants that fling now. Big-time. And maybe even something more.
As Cassie and Tate walk the line between friends and lovers, they're about to discover that their situation is the least complicated part of this equation. Because Avalon Bay is full of secrets-and their relationship might not survive when one secret in particular comes to light.
Sci-fi, fantasy & speculative fiction | More Perfect by Temi Oh
A sci-fi thriller reimagining of Orpheus and Eurydice in a near-future London.
When Moremi connects her brain to the Panopticon, a network which allows you to see inside the minds and dreams of others, she believes that it will save her from depression, loneliness and, eventually, death. That is until she meets Orpheus.
Orpheus was brought up in isolation by a Neo-luddite father. He was raised to question everything, including the government who plan to make the connection procedure compulsory. They promise that connecting everyone to the Panopticon will end human suffering and usher in a more perfect world. But when Orpheus and Moremi uncover the dark side of the technology, they find themselves on opposite sides of a radical divide, between those who believe that the Panopticon will save humanity, and those who will stop at nothing to destroy it.
Debut Fiction | Twelve Steps to a Long and Fulfilling Death by Sarah Smith
Stacey was trying to live her best life, but now she's dead. But why hasn't she passed on? Could it be her fatal car accident is actually murder?
Detectives Ed Beaufontaine and Rosie Garafino have a long list of suspects, chief among them Stacey's fiance, Liam. His business dealings and new relationship with Emily Jackson are raising a few eyebrows. As the detectives dig deeper, so does Stacey. With nothing but time on her hands, she forensically examines her past relationships realising she might have been better off without them. She's hoping she can steer the detectives in the right direction before she's doomed to wander for eternity. Because in the city of angels and 12 step programs, even the dead need a little help from time to time.
LGBTQIA+ | Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis
Sasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous, and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians - prominent news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda - invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they're quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple - Jesse's best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy - whose It-queer clout Sasha ridicules yet desperately wants.
As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests' secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple's future.
Young adult | One Song by A.J. Betts
Aspiring singer-songwriter Eva has one last chance to enter Triple J Unearthed High and break into the music industry. But after three failed attempts, she needs some help.
Cue the band: perfectionist Eva, charismatic Cooper, easy-going Ant and moody Ruby. Plus fly-on-the-wall Mim, who's filming them for her school Media project.
Five people who have nothing in common but music. One emotionally and creatively charged weekend. Can they record the most important song of their lives?
