Bestsellers for September 2009
1 The Nature of Ice Robyn Mundy Allen & Unwin $26.99
Robyn has created a fantastic debut novel. “The Nature of Ice” delights in many ways – an interesting and unusual present day story about a young Australian female photographer on an assignment in the Antarctic, fascinating excerpts from Mawson’s Antarctic diaries and beautiful presentation with black and white photographs from Mawson’s expedition. Robyn’s love of the Antarctic comes through vividly in the book and the story is gripping and moving, cleverly weaving Mawson’s love story and survival through adversity with the present day heroine’s struggles with family and relationships.
2 Remarkable Creatures Tracey Chevalier Harper Collins $27.99
Tracey Chevalier does what she does so well – she takes a famous historical figure and then adds another lesser known figure and weaves a fascinating story about them, mainly based in fact, but with additions of her own. Her research is always incredibly thorough and detailed and each book is a pleasurable learning experience. This time she sets the story in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England in 1820. Lyme is the favourite spot for finding fossils – a new pastime for gentlemen and scientists. Mary Anning is the young local girl who became famous for her skill at finding and preserving fossils and finding totally new dinosaur remains, which would disturb the scientific world of the time and shake religious belief. Elizabeth Philpot, is Mary’s older, middle-class spinster friend, who also loves fossils and wishes to be taken seriously in a male-only world. The story of the friendship between the two women and the revolutionary discoveries they were making, is fascinating and absorbing and can be enjoyed on many levels.
3 Bad Behaviour Liz Byrski Macmillan $32.99
Two friends on opposite sides of the world - Fremantle and Sussex UK, are both making mistakes and have done so in the past.Will try able to live with the consequences of their bad behaviour?
4 Stealing Picasso Anson Cameron Vintage $32.95
Based on a true story, Stealing Picasso is a madap romp through the pomposity of the art world. Written with dazzling energy, Anson Cameron's 6th book shows why he is Australia's leading comic novelist
5 Jasper Jones Craig Silvey Allen & Unwin $29.99
Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress.
Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.
6 New York Edward Rutherford Century $34.95
Rutherford tells this story through a cast of fictional and true characters, whose fates interweave in the rise and fall and fall and rise of the city's fortunes.
7 The Solitude of Prime Numbers Paolo Giordano Doubleday $32.95
A stunning debut novel, which has already sold a million copies in its native Italy, tells the story of two friends brought together by childhood tragedy. The theme of the prime number as a solitary thing – only divisible by itself or by one and never truly fitting with another – is central to the novel. Mattia, the male central character is a mathematician and ultimately he has to choose between human love and his love of mathematics. He has a special bond with his friend Alice, who understands him better than anyone else, because like him she has secrets from her childhood that she tries to hide. But will the two friends be able to cope with the possible discovery of Mattia’s missing sister?
8 Noah's Compass Anne Tyler Random House Australia $32.95
Anne Tyler is another author whose new books are always eagerly awaited round here! Tyler’s latest book centres round a sixty year old man, divorced and widowed and moving into a new, smaller apartment. After a mysterious accident, Liam suffers from memory loss and embarks on an adventure to try and re-capture his missing memories. This author is a master of the small details of life and she brilliantly captures the nuances of family life at every stage. Liam’s life is too neat, too contained and he is asked to let go on many levels, ultimately having to confront events that have haunted him all his life and which he has suppressed.
9 The World Beneath Cate Kennedy Scribe Publications $32.95
Sandy and Rich are hippies from way back, reliving their reactionary past in Tasmania, and struggling to face the problems of the present. Their daughter, Sophie, is fifteen and wishing that her parents were “cooler”! To celebrate her birthday, Rich, who is estranged from Sandy and Sophie, decides to take Sophie on the 6 day Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair walk in Tasmania. When the pair wander off the track and get lost, their relationship and the dynamics of the family are exposed. Cate Kennedy writes with wry humour and accuracy and manages to skewer neo-hippies, emo teenagers and male menopausers very effectively. She also captures the inhospitable Tasmanian wilderness with chilling effect.
Previous Bestsellers Lists
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3 September 2010
3 August 2010
4 July 2010
3 June 2010
5 May 2010
6 April 2010
3 March 2010
2 February 2010
28 October 2009
29 September 2009
3 September 2009
30 July 2009
Book of the Month
September 2010
Freedom
by
Jonathan Franzen