Top picks for book clubs this month
Australian fiction | Dirt Poor Islanders by Winnie Dunn
Meadow Reed used to get confused when explaining that she had grandparents from Australia, Tonga and Great Britain. She'd say she was full-White and full-Tongan, thinking that so many halves made separate wholes. Despite the Anglo-Saxon genetics that gave Meadow a narrow nose and light-brown skin, everybody who raised her was Tongan. Everybody who loved her was Tongan. This was what made her Tongan.
Growing up in the heat-hummed streets of Mt Druitt in Western Sydney, Meadow will face palangis who think they are better than Fobs, women who fall into other women, what it means to have many mothers, a playful rain and even Pineapple Fanta. For this half-White, half-Tongan girl, the world is bigger than the togetherness she has grown up in.
International fiction | The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
Olwen was plunged prematurely into adulthood when her parents died in tragic circumstances. She and her three younger sisters each single, each with a PhD are now in their thirties and leading disparate, distanced lives. Until one day Olwen, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the Earth's future, abruptly vanishes from her home.
Together for the first time in years, her three siblings descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn't actually want to be found. In an isolated rural bungalow they reach into their uncommon past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future.
Crime fiction | The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Outside the island there is nothing: the world destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island: it is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.
Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it.
Romance fiction | Funny Story by Emily Henry
Daphne always loved the way Peter told their story. How they met, fell in love, and moved back to his hometown to begin their life together. Too bad it turned out to be more of a prequel to Peter's actual love story with his childhood best friend, Petra.
So that's how Daphne's next chapter starts: stranded in a too-small town, propositioning Petra's heartbroken ex to move in. As roommates of course. A temporary solution until she gets a new job literally anywhere else. Miles is the exact opposite to Daphne, and it's mostly just unbearably awkward until one drunken night. A tenuous friendship formed, Miles convinces her to give this idyllic town one last summer – he'll show her why he loves it and if they happen to post deliberately misleading photos of their adventures together, so be it.
Sci-fi, Fantasy & Speculative fiction | The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
When Luzia, a servant in the household of a Spanish nobleman reveals a talent for domestic magic, her social-climbing mistress demands she use her gifts to win over the royal court. But what begins as simple amusement turns dangerous, as the king seeks any edge in his ongoing war with England.
Overmatched and at risk of revealing herself as a heretic, Luzia will have to use every bit of her wit and resilience to survive - even if that means enlisting the help of an embittered (and rather dashing) immortal familiar.
Debut fiction | The Gorgon Flower by John Richards
These accomplished, gothic-infused stories impress in terms of their range and unexpected twists – this is an exceptional debut collection that includes the title novella, 'The Gorgon Flower'.
A young woman is haunted by the disappearance of her grandmother, a brilliant mathematician whose research uncovered the basis for parallel universes. A botanist travels across the seas in search of an elusive, deadly flower that was also his late father's obsession. A talented painter produces his best work – unsettling masterpieces with strange, fantastical elements – years after he was last seen in person.
LGBTQIA+ | Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
Enid is many things: lesbian, serial dater, deaf in one ear, space obsessive, true crime fanatic. When she's not listening to grizzly murder podcasts, she's managing her crippling phobia of bald people and trying hard not to think about her mortifying teenage years – which is hard, when she's lost the password to her old YouTube account and the (many) vlogs that her teen self once uploaded. She's worried about herself, her depressive mother, and what the deal is with gender reveal parties.
But as Enid fumbles her way through her first serious relationship and navigates a new family life with her estranged half-sisters, she starts to worry that someone is following her. As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her.
Young Adult | Deep Is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson
Merriwether Morgan doesn't need a happily-ever-after. Her life in the idyllic town of Candlecott is fine just as it is: simple, happy, and with absolutely no magic. Magic only ever leads to trouble. But Merry's best friend, Teddy, is joining the Toadmen – a secret society upholding backward thinking and suspiciously supernatural traditions – and she is determined to stop him. Even if it means teaming up with her academic arch-nemesis, Caraway Boswell, an ice-cold snob who hides his true face behind a glamour.
An ancient Toad ritual is being held in the nightmarish Deeping Fen, and if Merry doesn't rescue Teddy, she'll lose him forever. But the further she travels into Deeping Fen's foul waters, the more Merry wonders if she can possibly save her friend – or if she's walking straight into a trap. Because there's nothing the Toadmen love more than a damsel in distress.