Book picks similar to
Sweetness and Light by Liam Pieper


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The Water Diviner


Andrew Anastasios - 2014
    Crescent collides with cross, and hope with reason as he discovers that his eldest son, Art, may still be alive. When Connor makes a desperate dash into the perilous heart of Anatolia one question haunts him: If Art is alive, why hasn't he come home?This is not a war novel, not even an anti-war novel. Instead it focuses on the battles that go on inside the hearts and minds of a small group of Australians and Turks as they struggle to bury their dead and rebuild their lives after the First World War. The story is based on first-hand resources, diaries and official records.

The Mystery Woman


Belinda Alexandra - 2020
    Secrets, scandal and betrayal in 1950s small town Australia: the stunning new novel from bestseller Belinda Alexandra She had thought Shipwreck Bay was simply a remote town where people were bored senseless with their little lives. Now she saw its virtuous facade hid something darker, more sinister.Rebecca Wood takes the role as postmistress in a sleepy seaside town, desperate for anonymity after a scandal in Sydney. But she is confronted almost at once by a disturbing discovery - her predecessor committed suicide.To add to her worries, her hopes for a quiet life are soon threatened by the attentions of the dashing local doctor, the unsettling presence of a violent whaling captain and a corrupt shire secretary, as well as the watchful eyes of the town's gossips. Yet in spite of herself she is drawn to the enigmatic resident of the house on the clifftop, rumoured to have been a Nazi spy.Against the backdrop of the turbulent sea, Rebecca is soon caught up in the dangerous mysteries that lie behind Shipwreck Bay's respectable net curtains.'This intriguing mystery with its gothic undertones, its salute to Du Maurier's Rebecca, and its melange of colourful characters will have readers racing through the pages, trying to piece together the puzzles that have long haunted Shipwreck Bay. They'll also be cheering for main character Rebecca as she struggles against the societal norms of 1950s Australia, fighting to be true to her unconventional self, and to forgive herself - and to perhaps even find happiness.' Natasha Lester, bestselling author of The Paris Secret

Bridge of Clay


Markus Zusak - 2018
    As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance. At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle. The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?

Just Another Week in Suburbia


Les Zig - 2017
    He and his wife Jane are still trying for a baby after seven years. His neighbours have their quirks to be navigated. And his job as a high school teacher, while satisfying, comes with its challenges.Every day is much like the one before that is, until Casper makes a discovery that threatens everything he knows... As Casper 's fears grows into obsessions, his world starts to unravel.Just Another Week in Suburbia is a story about love, trust, and insecurity, and the question of whether you can ever really know another person.

Company


Max Barry - 2006
    From the outside, Zephyr is just another bland corporate monolith, but behind its glass doors business is far from usual: the beautiful receptionist is paid twice as much as anybody else to do nothing, the sales reps use self help books as manuals, no one has seen the CEO, no one knows exactly what they are selling, and missing donuts are the cause of office intrigue. While Jones originally wanted to climb the corporate ladder, he now finds himself descending deeper into the irrational rationality of company policy. What he finds is hilarious, shocking, and utterly telling.

The Road Home


Fiona Palmer - 2012
    So when her brother calls asking her to come home, she hesitates. Can she face the memories that inhabit the beloved place of her childhood? And how does she feel with the news it's to be sold? Could she be the answer to saving the family farm? Jack Morgan has memories of his own to contend with. A falling out with his family and a bitter end to a past relationship have left a big chip on his shoulder. When his best mate's beautiful sister arrives on the scene, he finds himself deeply conflicted. Lara and Jack have a powerful attraction but are constantly at odds. Will their love of the same land keep them apart, or grow into a love of a different kind?

Feeding the Demons


Gabrielle Lord - 1999
    As the 30-something proprietor of a successful security and surveillance business, Gemma decides to video the effigy and compare notes with her friend, Detective Sergeant Angie MacDonald. Angie has a similar video - except the victim is a real woman.Meanwhile, Gemma s father, psychiatrist Dr Archie Chisholm, is due to be released from prison, where he has been held for many years for the murder of Gemma s mother. Gemma has always believed her father innocent, and has assembled evidence to prove it. Her sister Kit, however, is convinced of his guilt, and the relationship between the sisters has been deeply troubled since the time of the murder. As the serial killer s violent crimes escalate, the trauma of 30 years before resurfaces, and Gemma and Kit find themselves drawn ever-deeper into a situation they never thought possible, where the horrors of past and present become increasingly entwined ...

Sweet Damage


Rebecca James - 2013
    In my dreams it's as if the house itself has sinister intentions. But in real life it wasn't the house that was responsible for what happened. It was the people who did the damage ...' When Tim Ellison finds a cheap room to rent in the perfect location in Sydney it looks like a huge stroke of luck. In fact the room comes with a condition, and the owner of the house, the mysterious Anna London, is unfriendly and withdrawn. When strange and terrifying things start happening in the house at night, Tim wonders if taking the room is a mistake. But then his feelings for Anna start to change, and when her past comes back with a vengeance, Tim is caught right in the middle of it.A thrilling rollercoaster of a story - read it with the lights on!

Watch Over Me


Claire Corbett - 2017
    They watch for control, for survival, for pleasure. We watch for survival, for fear, for love. A contemporary thriller of rebellion and surrender, love and war.‘This gem of a novel ticks all the boxes—a book of flaming affections and indefatigable loves, dystopian and convincing, a tale of pilgrimages and adventures, all beautifully textured and lovingly narrated.’ - Tom Keneally, winner of the Booker Prize The pressure of my blood, the beat of my heart, is a message to you. You read each second of my body's life. But watching goes both ways. You watch us: for control, for power, for pleasure. We watch you: for survival, for fear, for love.It is the present day. The foggy northern city of Port Angelsund, gateway to the last great fossil fuel reserves beneath the Arctic Ocean, is under occupation by the soldiers of Garrison. Sylvie is a young woman just trying to survive. She works in a harbourside café with her mother and little brother, and fears for her older brother, Jory, who fled when the enemy invaded. When Sylvie is singled out for punishment at a Garrison checkpoint, a young lieutenant rescues her from torture. Though she knows the terrible risks of collaboration, she cannot stop herself from falling in love. Watched closely by Garrison’s vast machinery of surveillance, Sylvie now discovers she is also under the protective and suspicious gaze of her lover.Brooding over the rim of the world, Coalition pledges to free Port Angelsund: storm is coming, they say, we are on our way. When Jory returns on a terrorist mission that will throw the city into chaos, Sylvie’s loyalties are tested beyond breaking point. Her deep bond with her brother and her illicit passion for her Garrison officer are loves that cannot coexist. Whatever she does is betrayal. In the spirit of Hiroshima Mon Amour and Suite Francaise, this sensual and heart-breaking novel brings the classic conflicts of war and occupation, devotion and treachery, up to the present minute. While the unimaginable power of modern warfare advances, Watch Over Me reminds us that the things at stake—survival, refuge and love—remain the things worth fighting for.

Double Exposure: A Novel


Blaine M. Yorgason - 1983
    Nelson and Angela Armstrong are wealthy, successful, determined, and stubborn. The freshness of their love has gradually turned to the staleness of noncommunicating separateness. And Angela wants the separateness to be permanent. Nelson acquiesces, for he knows no way to recapture the glow which Angela seems so determined to snuff out entirely. But there is someone else who is concerned - one who died in 1848, yet his presence is uncannily real. And because of his own mistakes, he is determined to teach the Armstrongs what he learned about life, love, and survival.

The Rosie Project


Graeme Simsion - 2013
    He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.

Flesh Wounds


Richard Glover - 2015
    It's a game he always thinks he'll win. There was his mother, a deluded snob, who made up large swathes of her past and who ran away with Richard's English teacher, a Tolkien devotee, nudist and stuffed-toy collector. There was his father, a distant alcoholic, who ran through a gamut of wives, yachts and failed dreams. And there was Richard himself, a confused teenager, vulnerable to strange men, trying to find a family he could belong to. As he eventually accepted, the only way to make sense of the present was to go back to the past - but beware of what you might find there. Truth can leave wounds - even if they are only flesh wounds.Part poignant family memoir, part rollicking venture into a 1970s Australia, this is a book for anyone who's wondered if their family is the oddest one on the planet. The answer: 'No'. There is always something stranger out there.'Sad, funny, revealing, optimistic and hopeful.' Jeanette Winterson

Sorrow and Bliss


Meg Mason - 2020
    She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn't know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going.Martha told Patrick before they got married that she didn't want to have children. He said he didn't mind either way because he has loved her since he was fourteen and making her happy is all that matters, although he does not seem able to do it.By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn't really matter anymore. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing - if you can find something else to want.

Long Way Home


Nicola Marsh - 2019
     A prodigal daughter returns to Brockenridge... Eleven years ago Ruby Aston left Brockenridge - and its small-town gossip - for the anonymity of the big city. Now, a grieving Ruby is forced to come home to the place she loathes. But it also means returning to someone she's always regretted leaving behind... Connor Delaney is determined to prove himself and not get by on his family name alone. To do this he needs to acquire the local roadhouse. He never anticipated the owner would be the same 'bad girl' who ditched him at the high school ball and was never heard from again. For Alisha Nathieson, the grief of suddenly losing her dear friend and employer Clara Aston has forced her to examine her choice to stay to support her aging parents. As she battles a growing need to explore her past, temptation wars with duty. And then there are her feelings for handsome chef Harry, who has secrets of his own... If Ruby follows her heart and saves her mother's legacy, will she lose the one man she's longed for all along?

Where Fortune Lies


Mary-Anne O'Connor - 2020
    For fans of Nicole Alexander, Colleen McCullough, and Fiona McIntosh.1879: 'Invisible' Anne Brown fears she'll never escape the harshness and poverty of her life in County Donegal, Ireland. Until, one heartbreaking Beltane night, her life is changed forever and she leaves to seek her fortune in far-flung Australia.Upon the death of their father, charismatic Will Worthington and his beloved sister Mari are stunned to find he has left all their money and a ticket to the far shores of Australia to an enigmatic painted woman. It seems their only hope for a brighter future also lies in Australia, where together with Will's best friend, the artist Charlie Turner, they seek their fortunes.Charlie finds love with a mysterious exotic dancer, yet there is trouble on the horizon. His new friends up in the Victorian Alps might be teaching him to run with the wild horses and find his talent with a brush at last, but life in a bushranger gang is a dangerous game.As Charlie struggles to break free from his fate, all four are left with impossible choices as fortunes waver between life and death, loyalty and the heart.