Book picks similar to
Storm Bay by Patricia Shaw


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A Girl Like Me


Penny Matthews - 2010
    She's funny and knowing and wild, and she distracts Emmie from the monotony of farm life in their tiny, isolated community. But, as Emmie soon discovers, Bertha has secrets. Terrible secrets.This heartbreaking story is based on a real crime that took place more than a century ago, capturing headlines all around Australia.

What a Time to be Alive


Mark Di Stefano - 2016
    A poll fought between two wildly ambitious men who want to win their first election, whatever it takes. Mark Di Stefano finds out what is happening behind the scenes and how the two campaigns manufacture, massage and manipulate their parties, policies and principles. What a time to be alive documents the daily ride of an historic election campaign, week by long week, taking you into the bizarre world of staged photo ops, booze-drenched regrets and dirty direct messages. The exposure of the unscripted moments with political leaders, their over-worked staff and secretive minders, shows how the sausage that is this Australian election, is made and reveals what is really inside.

An Indecent Obsession


Colleen McCullough - 1981
    Then everything changes with the arrival of a decorated, yet damaged, war hero. The nurse finds herself drawn to this tortured man, and the couple soon discovers a soul stirring passion that ultimately leads to violent tragedy

Triumph and Demise: The broken promise of a Labor generation


Paul Kelly - 2014
    It is the inside account of the hopes, achievements and bitter failures of the Labor Government from 2007 to 2013. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard came together to defeat John Howard, formed a brilliant partnership and raised the hopes of the nation. Yet they fell into tension and then hostility under the pressures of politics and policy. Veteran journalist Paul Kelly probes the dynamics of the Rudd–Gillard partnership and dissects what tore them apart. He tells the full story of Julia Gillard’s tragedy as our first female prime minister - her character, Rudd’s destabilisation, the carbon tax saga and how Gillard was finally pulled down on the eve of the 2013 election. Kelly documents the most misunderstood event in these years - the rise of Tony Abbott and the reason for his success. It was Abbott’s performance that denied Rudd and Gillard the chance to recover. Labor misjudged Abbott and paid the price. Kelly writes with a keen eye and fearless determination. His central theme is that Australian politics has entered a crisis of the system that, unless corrected, will diminish the lives of all Australians.

The Woolgrower’s Companion


Joy Rhoades - 2017
    All the local, able-bodied young men, including the husband Kate barely knows, have enlisted and Kate’s father is struggling with his debts and his wounds from the Great War. He borrows recklessly from the bank and enlists two Italian prisoners of war to live and work on the station.With their own scars and their defiance, the POWs Luca and Vittorio offer an apparent threat to Kate and Daisy, the family’s young Aboriginal maid. But danger comes from surprising corners and Kate finds herself more drawn to Luca than afraid of him.Scorned bank managers, snobbish neighbours and distant husbands expect Kate to fail and give up her home but over the course of a dry, desperate year she finds within herself reserves of strength and rebellion that she could never have expected.The Woolgrower’s Companion is the gripping story of one woman’s fight to save her home and a passionate tribute to Australia’s landscape and its people.

Party Animals: The secret history of a Labor fiasco


Samantha Maiden - 2020
    If you thought the 2019 election was just about a death tax that didn’t exist, you’re in for a surprise.From the dark arts of the dirt units to the role of billionaire Clive Palmer, this is the untold story of an election debacle. The Labor Party was the unbeatable favourite to win the 2019 election right up until the polls closed and voters delivered the surprise verdict. If the results staggered pundits, they also shocked Bill Shorten and his frontbench, who had spent the final weeks of the campaign carefully planning for their first days in office.Party Animals uncovers the secret history of a Labor fiasco, the untold story behind Scott Morrison’s miracle

Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns


Thomas Mann - 1939
    Upon her arrival, Lotte, to her surprise, is greeted as a celebrity and taken up into Goethe's set.Thomas Mann, fascinated with the concept of genius and with the richness of German culture, found in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe the embodiment of the German culture hero. Mann's novelistic biography of Goethe was first published in English in 1940. Lotte in Weimar is a vivid dual portrait—a complex study of Goethe and of Lotte, the still-vivacious woman who in her youth was the model for Charlotte in Goethe's widely-read The Sorrows of Young Werther. Lotte's thoughts, as she anticipates meeting Goethe again after forty years, and her conversations with those in Weimar who knew the great man, allow Mann to assess Goethe's genius from many points of view.

In Darkness Visible


Tony Jones - 2019
    Before the year is out, he has been assaulted, arrested, charged with serious war crimes and locked up in Scheveningen Prison in The Hague, waiting for his case to come before the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.In Sydney, Anna Rosen, a freelance journalist, is emailed photos of a man she knows to be dead - gunned down in a brutal ambush in Bosnia over a decade ago. A man she'd once loved but who had betrayed her. Is it possible that the photos really are of Marin Katich? And if so, what the hell had happened in 1992?From Croatia to The Hague to Bosnia and Herzegovina to Sydney, Anna and Marin's intertwined history fuels her determination to tear apart, piece by piece, his secrets, while continuing to keep her own. In a dangerous pursuit of justice and revenge, navigating the murky world of national and international secret agencies and those who would still be warlords, Anna fights for what she believes in and for those she loves.

Light Horse Boy


Dianne Wolfer - 2013
    But in the Light Horse they quickly discover the brutal realities of life on the frontline. And nothing will ever be the same again.Featuring charcoal sketches by Brian Simmonds alongside primary source documents and historical photos, Light Horse Boy goes behind the scenes of the great ANZAC legends for an intimate look at their experience of World War I.

The Frankston Murders: The True Story of Serial Killer Paul Denyer


Vikki Petraitis - 2011
    

The Girl on the Cliff


Lucinda Riley - 2011
    And it is here, on a cliff edge, that she first meets a young girl, Aurora, who will profoundly change her life. Mysteriously drawn to Aurora, Grania discovers that the histories of their families are strangely and deeply entwined . . .From a bittersweet romance in wartime London to a troubled relationship in contemporary New York, from devotion to a foundling child to forgotten memories of a lost brother, the Ryans and the Lisles, past and present, have been entangled for a century. Ultimately, it will be Aurora whose intuition and remarkable spirit help break the spell and unlock the chains of the past.Haunting, uplifting and deeply moving, Aurora's story tells of the triumph of hope over loss.

The United States of Vinland: Four Tales From Norse America: The Landing, Young Ravens and Hidden Blades, Red Winter, and Loki's Rage


Colin Taber - 2018
    The beginnings of a glorious saga befitting the Viking age! The Norse settled Greenland in 985AD and reached continental North America not long after - almost five centuries before Columbus - but left. What if they had stayed? Imagine what may have happened, how the world we know might be different… Would the British still have built their great empire? What of the Spanish, Portuguese and French imperial expansions?  What about the two catastrophic world wars our timeline has endured? Would there still have been some kind of American Revolution and Civil War? In such an alternate history, might the American Bible Belt celebrate the All-Father Odin, Freya and Thor instead of Jesus Christ? Indeed, what kind of America could have arisen? We begin with The Landing as the Norse arrive on the shores of what we know as Canada’s Labrador. From there we will watch the first of them explore, live, love and in some cases fall. In time they will raise halls and found their first settlements as their colonies spread. They will meet other peoples and face great challenges. Bitter winters will come, but they will be followed by hope-filled springs. And all the while the Norse Gods will look upon the work of their mortal followers as a new civilisation grows. Join me as we explore this amazing alternate history! This boxed set includes: United States of Vinland #1: The Landing  A Short Tale From Norse America #1: Young Ravens & Hidden Blades United States of Vinland #2: Red Winter  United States of Vinland #3: Loki's Rage  Over 1300 pages of Viking exploration and adventure! United States of Vinland #4: Odin's Hall will release in 2019.

Born to Rule: The unauthorised biography of Malcolm Turnbull


Paddy Manning - 2015
     The highs and lows of Malcolm Turnbull's remarkable career are documented here in technicolour detail by journalist Paddy Manning. Based on countless interviews and painstaking research, it is a forensic investigation into one of Australia’s most celebrated overachievers, Turnbull's relentless energy and quest for achievement have taken him from exclusive Point Piper to Oxford University; from beating the Thatcher government in the Spycatcher trial to losing the referendum on the republic; from defending the late Kerry Packer - codenamed Goanna - in the Costigan Royal Commission to defending his own role in the failure of HIH, Australia's biggest corporate collapse. He was involved in the unravelling of the Tourang bid for Fairfax, struck it rich as co-founder of OzEmail, and fought his own hotly contested battle for Wentworth As Opposition leader he was duped by Godwin Grech's 'Utegate' fiasco; as the most tech-savvy communications minister he oversaw a nobbled NBN scheme. And now he has assumed the leadership of the Liberal Party for the second time after wrestling the prime ministership from first-term PM Tony Abbott. Will Turnbull crash and burn as he has before or has his entire tumultuous life been a rehearsal for this moment?

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle


Sophie Green - 2019
    THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER is a box office hit and Paul Hogan is on the TV. In a seaside suburb, housewife Theresa takes up swimming. She wants to get fit; she also wants a few precious minutes to herself. So at sunrise each day she strikes out past the waves.From the same beach, the widowed Marie swims. With her husband gone, bathing is the one constant in her new life.After finding herself in a desperate situation, 25-year-old Leanne only has herself to rely on. She became a nurse to help others, even as she resists help herself.Elaine has recently moved from England. Far from home and without her adult sons, her closest friend is a gin bottle.In the waters of Shelly Bay, these four women find each other. They will survive bluebottle stings and heartbreak; they will laugh so hard they swallow water, and they will plunge their tears into the ocean's salt. They will find solace and companionship, and learn that love takes many forms. Most of all, they will cherish their friendship, each and every day. 'Reading this book was like snuggling beneath a warm beach towel after a bracing dip in the ocean.' - JOANNA NELLPraise for Sophie Green's THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE FAIRVALE LADIES BOOK CLUB'Tender, intimate, heartwarming, fulfilling and Australian as a lamb roast and full-bodied shiraz' The Australian Women's Weekly'An absolute gem of a novel, with the most evocative sense of place . . . A treat for any book club' BETTER READING

All We Dream


Pamela Cook - 2013
    A family secret. Two women hiding from the truth.When successful Sydney lawyer Miranda McIntyre searches for something old to go with her wedding dress, she remembers an antique necklace from her childhood. Her mother's denial of its existence only deepens Miranda's curiosity but the discovery of a faded wedding photo and an old newspaper clipping reveal long-buried family secrets.Who is the woman in the photo? And why are these keepsakes hidden in her mother's closet?Miranda's quest for the truth takes her on a road trip south to the idyllic seaside village of Pelican Point where she stumbles upon a secluded cliff-top cottage and the reclusive Esther Wilson. As Miranda begins to unravel the mystery, a tale of daring rescue, forbidden love and shocking betrayal unfolds.Meeting enigmatic horse trainer Vincent Kennedy forces Miranda to question the life she has worked so hard to create, throwing into turmoil everything she thought she knew about the past and about herself.A multi-generational story of family, hope and following your heart.