books

The Significance of Behrouz Boochani

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As some of you may know, Behrouz Boochani’s book ‘No Friend but the Mountains’ has just won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, an esteemed literary prize that honours Australian writing and writers from many genres.

8bbf2dbb5c9c9d39ecd8b395c51d793043528a2fThis is significant. For those unfamiliar with his story here is a short summary. Behrouz* is an Iranian asylum-seeker currently being housed on Manus Island, a ‘beneficiary’ of the Australian Government’s offshore processing scheme. He has been housed in detention for six years, detained indefinitely, after seeking asylum by boat from Indonesia.

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Harriet Gets Carried Away

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Hold onto your hats folks,  Jessie Sima’s new book ‘Harriet gets Carried Away’ has just arrived in store! We are big fans of her debut picture book ‘Not quite Narwhal’ which we blogged about here, and we are so excited to share this gorgeous book with you.

Harriet loves costumes. It doesn’t matter where she goes; the dentist, the shops, school – she can be anything she wants. But this time, she gets carried away…literally. By penguins.

 

One of our favourites for the year – we hope you love it too.

The Book of Dust – Philip Pullman

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Pullman Fans Rejoice! There is a new book from the ever popular fantasy writer and author of ‘His Dark Materials’ Philip Pullman.

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“Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them, a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua . . .”

Check out the trailer below!

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October New Releases

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For every job there is always a crazy period in the year. For us, that stretches from October through to December.

October New releases is the time of year where we can be seen ferrying teetering piles of books from one end of the store to the other in what seems like a never ending stream. Most of the time our faces peek out from behind large stacks of books and it’s this time of year that we are reminded of a few things.

  1. There IS such a thing as too many books.
  2. We should have worked on our cardio and stamina
  3. There are not enough hours in the day to read all of the amazing new books that we  are suddenly discovering.

So here are a few of the exciting new titles that are ready for Christmas gifts and summer reading.

Fiction

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Jane Harper – Forces of Nature (Author of The Dry)

Jennifer Egan – Manhattan Beach (Author of Visit from the Goon Squad)

Ben Aaronovitch – The Furthest station (Spin-off Novella)

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Nevermoor

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Hold onto your hats, we have some exciting news!

We are proud to present ‘Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow’, the first novel from Australia’s very own Jessica Townsend.

With the world building of Harry Potter and some of the quirks of Alice in Wonderland this is the beginning of one of the most exciting series in children’s fiction that we have seen for many years!

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Feminist biographies

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Recently I’ve been on a feminist biography rampage, devouring every book written by women who have something to say about feminism or their stories about growing up as a woman in this world. It’s the perfect way to absorb feminist theory, through the personal stories of others. Here are a few classics and a few new releases I’ve read recently:

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Banana Girl, Michelle Lee, Transit Lounge, $29.95.

Michelle writes cleverly about her relationships with friends, love interests and family. Lee mostly writes about her life in Melbourne, but as a Canberran, I love the memories she shares about growing up in the nations capital. She doesn’t hold back with the her more personal anecdotes. There are definitely a few ex-boyfriends reading her book, more than likely horrified that she told the world their secrets. Her lack of filter is what makes Banana Girl it such a compelling read.

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Book Review: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

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The year is 2059 in Scion London and Paige Mahoney is Dream-walker. Paige works for an underground syndicate in London, that specializes in mime-crime, a type of spiritual warfare used by ‘Unnaturals’ or ‘Clairvoyants’. Unnaturals are a group of people on the fringe, abhorred and feared for their ‘second sight’ abilities and there are two options for people like them; work for Scion hunting your own kind, or spend your life running.

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Design love: Juniper Books

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Juniper Books founder Thatcher Wine (great name) believes that there is a book out there for everyone that means something incredibly personal, be it an inspiring person’s story, a picture book or an unknown novel.

 “I have this vision everyone should have the books they love, in the format they want, so they have reason to revisit those books, share them with others, and keep them forever. For every single person in the world, there is a printed book that means something.”

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