Book picks similar to
How To Be Held by Maddie Godfrey


poetry
australian
queer
poetry-novels-in-verse

Take This Stallion


Anais Duplan - 2016
    "I have never before read a book like Anais Duplan's Take This Stallion. Her major talent is recognizing the self in the other, making for poems that flow forward in a tone of oneness is oneness a tone? poems that make evident an ever-expanding world by opening themselves up into that world. This debut does what poets in their fifth or sixth collections are still trying to figure: it balances the intellect, image, music, and emotion in ways so unfamiliar that a blurb couldn't possible characterize the work." —Jericho Brown

Ayiti


Roxane Gay - 2011
    The debut collection from the vibrant voice of Roxane Gay is a unique blend of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, all interwoven to represent the Haitian diaspora experience.

The Pick-up (The Drop-off, #2)


Fiona Harris - 2021
    Newly divorced Sam is navigating the ‘delights’ of online dating. And Lizzie is flat out juggling four kids and an absent husband.As if that wasn’t enough, this year the trio have decided to embrace their inner parent helper and volunteer to go on the annual school camp.If they think their personal lives are chaotic, this camp’s going to teach them what chaos really means …The hilarious new novel from the popular authors of The Drop-off. Perfect for fans of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.

The Inside Man


James Phelps - 2021
     The unputdownable action thriller from Australia's no.1 true crime writer.Riley Jax, convicted murderer. Once a promising engineer in the army, he lost everything in a single night when he killed a man - an act he cannot remember.It's a devastating gap in an otherwise perfect memory.Now he's facing a new life, one behind bars, where he has to learn a whole different set of rules and only the toughest survive.And as a series of deadly bombings rocks the outside world, the only man who might be able to find the truth behind the conspiracy ... is on the inside.

The House: The dramatic story of the Sydney Opera House and the people who made it


Helen Pitt - 2018
    When it did, the lives of everyone involved in its construction were utterly changed: some for the better, many for the worse.Helen Pitt tells the stories of the people behind the magnificent white sails of the Sydney Opera House. From the famous conductor and state premier who conceived the project; to the two architects whose lives were so tragically intertwined; to the workers and engineers; to the people of Sydney, who were alternately beguiled and horrified as the drama unfolded over two decades.With access to diaries, letters, and classified records, as well as her own interviews with people involved in the project, Helen Pitt reveals the intimate back story of the building that turned Sydney into an international city. It is a tale worthy of Shakespeare himself.'A drama-filled page turner' - Ita Buttrose AO OBE'Helen Pitt tells us so much about the building of the Sydney Opera House we've never heard before' - Bob Carr, former Premier of NSW'Australia in the seventies: mullets, platform shoes and, miraculously, the Opera House. At least we got one of them right. A great read.' - Amanda Keller, WSFM breakfast presenter

Scam


Jack Stroke - 2019
     Best to know what you're stealing and who you're stealing from. When wannabe criminal Jonathan hears about a life-changing amount of unprotected cash just begging to be stolen, the opportunity is too good to pass up. Problem is he can’t do it alone, so he ropes in a couple of low rent potheads, kicking off a whole bunch of trouble. Can Nuke, a gangster with an explosive temper and marital difficulties, sort out the mess? All while balancing his psychotic bosses, some dodgy cops, his bored wife and of course Jonathan, the man with the plan? SCAM is an exciting romp full of dumb criminals, harebrained schemes, formidable femme fatales and even a sweet love story, all told with a distinctly Australian sensibility. You'll love this gritty crime thriller because the twists and turns will keep you guessing (and laughing) until the very last second. Get it today.

The House on Hill Street


Judy Nunn - 2012
    But the neighbours are becoming concerned. Eileen Jameson and the boys haven't been seen for quite some time...When a gruesome discovery points the finger, quite literally, at the Professor's house, Inspector Max Carruthers and Detective Sergeant Lucas Matthews come knocking at the door. It's a day they will never forget ...

Beautiful Failures


Lucy Clark - 2016
    Every day of her high school life was a struggle. She woke up in the morning and the thought of going to school was like an enormous mountain to climb. 'Nothing will ever be as easy as your school years,' well-meaning adults told her, but I knew for my daughter, and for many kids who have struggled as square pegs trying to make themselves round, this was dead wrong. When Lucy Clark's daughter graduated from school a 'failure', she started asking questions about the way we measure success. Why is there so much pressure on kids today? Where does it come from? Most importantly, as we seem to be in the grip of an epidemic of anxiety, how can we reduce that pressure? Beautiful Failures explores, through personal experience and journalistic investigation, a broken education system that fails too many kids and puts terrible pressure on all kids, including those who 'succeed'. It challenges accepted wisdoms about schooling, calls on parents to examine their own expectations, and questions the purpose of education, and indeed the purpose of childhood.

Perfect Hair


Tommi Parrish - 2016
    The locations and bodies are exaggerated to reach a more realistic and sensorial state. This is an awesome debut comic."— Dash Shaw, author of titles such as Cosplayers, Doctors, Bodyworld, and Bottomless Belly Button"Parrish has one of my favourite traits in a cartoonist: intense passion for the craft. They are rapidly evolving and experimenting wildly and it’s joyful to watch."— Simon Hanselmann, author of NY Times bestselling titles such as Megahex and Meg and Mogg in AmsterdamPerfect Hair, the debut graphic novel by Tommi Parrish, is a vivid set of vignettes that balances emotional honesty with a keen cultural awareness. Deploying their bold, innovative style to navigate topics such as fear, loneliness, identity, body politics, and more, Parrish is a promising newcomer from the burgeoning Australian altcomics scene. Tommi Parrish is a cartoonist, illustrator, and art editor based in Melbourne, Australia. Their work has appeared in various anthologies, magazines, mini comics, gallery shows in New York, Argentina, and throughout Australia, as well as the online column Advicecomics. They are also the art editor of the Australian literary journal The Lifted Brow.

A Gringo Like Me: Poems


Jennifer L. Knox - 2005
    Knox’s A Gringo Like Me contains poems at once raucous and sexy, tender and raw. Knox has collected dramatic monologues, personal lyrics, and even screenplays together in a single energetic volume for a genuinely surprising debut. In favorites such as “Hot Ass Poem,” “Cruising for Prostitutes,” and “Chicken Bucket,” Knox’s quirky characters appear ornery, hickish, misogynist, or worse, but each elucidates a truth worth knowing, even if it’s not always welcome. In poems like "A Common American Name" and "Freckles," Knox’s lyrical voice charms readers. Between the poles of her unique range, Knox straddles and tames what she may yet prove to be an artificial divide in American poetry: she's a former slam champion, but also a two-time contributor to The Best American Poetry; she's a hilarious performer on stage, but also a deeply intellectual and formally disciplined poet.

Adult Fantasy: searching for true maturity in an age of mortgages, marriages, and other adult milestones


Briohny Doyle - 2017
    The world she lived in — with its global economic uncertainty, political conservatism, and precarious employment conditions — didn’t match the one her parents grew up in. She read article after article about the reluctance of millennials to embrace the traditional markers of adulthood: a stable job, a house in the suburbs, a nuclear family. But do these emblems of maturity mean the same thing today as they did thirty years ago?In this smart, spirited enquiry, Doyle examines whether millennials are redefining what it means to be an adult now. Blending personal essay and cultural critique, she ventures into the big claims of philosophy and the neon buzz of pop culture to ask: in a rapidly changing world, do the so-called adult milestones distract us from other measures of maturity?

Cricket Kings


William McInnes - 2006
    With these characters William will make us laugh and cry. And never again will we think that someone is just a regular bloke - everyone can be a king or a queen in their own suburb.

Stars Like Us


Frances Chapman - 2020
    Liliana’s hitting all the wrong notes. She’s a sixteen-year-old exchange student with a secret crush on Carter, her new band’s smoking hot guitarist – but she’s also got a girlfriend back home. So when she writes a song about him and it lands the band a record deal, she quickly realises she’s in hot water. Soon, Liliana will have to choose – between an alluring boy and the girl she left behind, between love and lust, and between the fame that beckons and staying true to the music that’s in her heart. With shades of hit TV series Nashville, the musical passion of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and the band drama of Fleetwood Mac, this brilliant own-voices YA debut is perfect for music lovers everywhere.

The Art of Taxidermy


Sharon Kernot - 2019
    Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.The Art of Taxidermy is a heartbreaking verse novel exploring love and death, grief and beauty, and the ways we try to make sense of it all.

The Family Man


Anna Willett - 2021
    Her books are set in South Western Australia.