Bestsellers for July 2010

1	Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet    David Mitchell    Sceptre    $32.99
		This dense and detailed historical novel by the talented David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas), tells the story of the humble and decent Dutch clerk, Jacob de Zoet. The year is 1799 and the story is set on the island of Dejima, which is an island near Batavia where the western world is allowed to make trading contact with the Japanese. The Japanese have been in isolation from the rest of the world for two centuries and are extremely secretive about trade and scientific practices. Jacob becomes involved in what amounts to industrial espionage and fascinated with the Japanese and their world. He also falls in love with a clever Japanese woman, which is tricky when he is supposed to be in the Far East earning his fortune so that he can marry his true love back in Holland. The research that has gone into this book is phenomenal and the period details bring time and place to life in a masterly way.
2	Sex and Stravinsky    Barbara Trapido    Bloomsbury    $32.99
		Barbara Trapido is another of our favourite authors. She delights again with this tale of two families, set in Barbara’s two favourite haunts - South Africa and Oxford. Caroline, a tall, beautiful headmistress, lives in a converted house-bus with Jewish South African Josh. She seems enviable in many ways, until one realises that she is manipulated by her hideously selfish mother and her moody ballet fixated daughter. Meanwhile, back in South Africa, Josh’s childhood sweetheart, Hattie, is trapped in a tedious marriage and entertains herself by writing the very ballet books that are devoured by Josh’s teenage daughter. Cleverly linking balletic and Shakespearean themes, but yet immensely readable, this is Trapido at her sparkling best.
3	Hand that First Held Mine    Maggie O'Farrell    Hachette    $32.99
		We were all excited to read the new Maggie O’Farrell, as “the Disappearance of Esme Lennox” was such a delight. Luckily, her new book does not disappoint! From the very first page we are drawn into the life of Lexie Sinclair – sitting in her garden on the border of Devon and Cornwall in the 1950s and waiting for life to begin. Luckily for her, she is whisked off to London and the delights of a Bohemian lifestyle. Fifty years later, European artist, Elina has just had a traumatic birth and is struggling to come to terms with motherhood. Her partner, Ted, finds himself disturbed by recollections of a childhood that doesn’t tie in with his parent’s version of events. Can Elina help him find the truth and discover how his childhood is linked to Lexie’s story? This is the sort of book that makes you want to start it all over again once you have reached the end!
4	Hearts and Minds    Amanda Craig    Little Brown    $32.99
		This novel, set in contemporary London, has one of the most appealing sets of characters to be found in a novel for some time. All five of the main characters are immigrants from different parts of the globe and are all trying to survive in the concrete jungle of modern London. They are all bound by a web of connections, gradually revealed during the course of the novel. Polly Noble’s au pair has been found dead in a pond in a park in North London and the girl’s death triggers a series of events which will bring the other characters into contact with each other. With the pace of a thriller and the humanity of a novel, this is a book to make you think about the way we force people to live in order to achieve our own goals.
5	So Much for That    Lionel Shriver    Harper Collins    $32.99
		Lionel Shriver is back on form with this incisive look into the American Health system. Shep Knacker is all set to embark on his Afterlife – he has saved up a million dollars to escape the rat-race and start a new life on the tropical island of his choice. But unfortunately, on the very day that he buys the tickets, his wife announces that she is seriously ill and they will need all the health insurance that they can get… so poor Shep has to carry on working. This is a masterful expose of what happens when people are stuck in a system with no flexibility or humanity. Full of irony and feisty characters, this is a very memorable read and an ideal Bookclub choice.
6	Wolf Hall    Hilary Mantel    Fourth Estate    $32.99
		England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolseys clerk, and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. From one of our finest living writers, WOLF HALL that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage.
7	Island Beneath the Sea    Isabel Allende    Harper Collins    $32.99
		Isabel Allende is a master story teller and she pulls out all the stops in this absorbing epic, based on the island that was later to become Haiti. Opening in the late eighteenth century and covering forty years, it follows the story of a French sugarcane plantation owner, Valmorain and his slave concubine Tete. Their entwined stories take them Haiti to New Orleans, during the tumultuous years of the slave mutiny and beyond. Allende’s heroines are always worth getting to know and Tete is no exception. This book is just perfect for a winter weekend curled up on your favourite couch!
8	Very Thought of You    Rosie Alison    Alma Books    $22.00
		England at the start of the second world war. Thousands of children are evacuated from London to escape the Blitz. Torn from her mother, 8 year old Anna Sands is relocated with other children to a large Yorkshire estate. Anna gets to know the childless couple who own the estate and witnesses the unravelling of their relationship and sees things that she shouldn't see - reminiscent of LP Hartley's "The Go-Between" and McEwan's "Atonement".
9	Indelible Ink    Fiona McGregor    Scribe Publications    $32.95
		Marie King is in her late fifties, lives in a lovely house in Mosman, Sydney, has three grown-up children, an ex-husband, a cat and a beautiful garden. She also has a bit of a drink problem and not enough spare cash. After a rather generous lunch with her friend Susan, she wanders into a tattoo parlour and has her first tattoo. This rash action sets Marie on a new pathway and alters her relationships and the way she views her world forever. Although this may sound a familiar formula for a mid-life-crisis novel, it is a must-read, with fantastic characters and a vivid portrait of Sydney and the dilemmas of modern life. This is a book that you will want to keep reading and will stay in your mind afterwards.

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Previous Bestsellers Lists

View the previous bestsellers lists by selecting the date of the list you'd like to view

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