Heres to the ladies out there!
One of the better moments in life is finding such an enticing novel, that putting it down is just not possible.
Luckily, we have bundled a collection of said books, perfect for the nights where all you want to do is grab a blanket, a hot cuppa and get lost in a story.
Nailing Down the Saint – Craig Cliff
Hollywood, fatherhood, levitation. This smart, funny thought-provoking novel, by commonwealth prize-winning Craig Cliff, is full of surprises.
Duncan Blake is a Kiwi filmmaker whose move to LA has not gone to plan. After a series of setbacks, he’s working at a chain restaurant, his marriage is on shaky ground after a porn-related faux pas and his son won’t stop watching Aladdin. When Duncan gets the chance to scout locations for a biopic of Saint Joseph of Copertino, it’s the lifetime he’s been searching for. But in Italy, in the footsteps of the seventeenth-century levitator, he must confront miracles, madness and the realities of modern movie making. Is it possible that a rational, materialist worldview isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?
Lady in the Lake – Laura Lippman
Cleo Sherwood disappeared eight months ago. Aside from her parents and the two sons she left behind, no one seems to have noticed. It isn’t hard to understand why: it’s 1964 and neither the police, the public nor the papers care much when Negro women go missing.
Maddie Schwartz- recently separated from her husband and working her first job as an assistant at the Baltimore Sun – wants one thing: a byline. When she hears about an unidentified body that’s been pulled out of the fountain in Druid Hill Park, Maddie thinks she is about to uncover a story that will finally get her name in print. What she can’t imagine is how much trouble she will cause by chasing a story that no one wants her to tell.
Chances Are – Richard Russo
Three older men convene on Martha’s Vineyard, friends since meeting in college in the sixties. They couldn’t have been more different then, or even today. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend here in 1971. Now, forty-five years later, three lives and that of a significant other are displayed in their entirety as the distant past confounds the present. A gripping story about the abiding yet complex power of friendship.
Isolde – Irina Odoevtseva
Left to her own devices in Biarritz, fourteen-year-old Russian Liza meets an older English boy, Cromwell. Disaffected and restless, Liza, her brother Nikolai and her boyfriend Andrei enjoy Cromwell’s company in restaurants and jazz bars after he follows Liza back to Paris- until his mother stops giving him money. As the group falls deeper into its haze of alcohol, their darker drives begin to take over. First published in 1929, Isolde is a hypnotically dark classic of love, deceit and wayward youth.
The Partisan Heart – Gordon Kerr
The death of his wife has left Michael Keats bereft; the subsequent discovery of her adultery devastates him. Michael resolves to discover the identity of her lover. That journey leads him to northern Italy where he becomes embroiled in a story of passion and treachery amongst the Partisans and villagers during the darkest days of World War II. As Michael gets closer to the truth, he realises that some secrets should never be told. Weaving superbly between 1999 and 1944, this is an enthralling story of passion and betrayal.
The Clockmaker’s Daughter – Kate Morton
A story of intrigue, mystery and thievery, of art, love and loss – from the international #1 bestselling author whose novels have sold over 11 million copies worldwide.
Courtney’s War – Wilbur Smith, David Churchill
An epic story of courage, betrayal and undying love that takes the reader to the very heart of a world at war.
Meet Me in Venice – Barbara Hannay
A powerful, richly layered investigative story for our times, drawing on the personal stories of the author and other women who have been drawn into relationships based on duplicity and false hope.
The Burnt Country – Joy Rhoades
1948 Australia, Kate Dowd runs a sheep station and she’s expected to fail. Her grazier neighbour is doing his best to ensure she does, attacking her method of burning off to repel a bushfire. Soon Kate is putting out fires on all fronts to save her farm, keep her family together and protect the man she loves.
