Recommended reading

Dog Boy – Eva Hornung
The story of the child raised by beasts has fascinated through the ages, but Eva Hornung has created such a vivid and original telling, which is so utterly emotionally convincing that it becomes the definitive of how it would be. Taking us with Romochka into the world of his dog-family, she shows through his clear, alien eyes the disintegration and obdurate persistence of community, of family; the uncertain embrace of society, the consequences of social breakdown and exclusion. And in doing this she shows us our brutal, tender, frightened selves; exploring what our animal nature brings to our humanity.

The Samurai’s Garden – Gail Tsukiyama
On the eve of the Second World War, a young Chinese man is sent to his family's summer home in Japan to recover from tuberculosis. There he meets four local residents and what ensues is a classical yet wonderfully unique adventure that seizes the imagination with its clean, simple yet dazzling storytelling.

Belly Dancing for Beginners – Liz Byrskie
A warm-hearted, moving and often outright funny story of what can happen when women, and the men in their lives, are brave enough to reveal who they really are. Gayle, Sonya and Marissa are three very different women who might not have been drawn to each other without the belly dancing class, so what is it about the dancing that breaks down the barriers? Both Gayle and Marissa have secrets that they have kept for decades; they have been changed both by the nature of those secrets and the effect of keeping them. Why, when women’s friendship is so valued and celebrated, is it sometimes so hard to reveal things about our past to our friends?

The Lost Recipe for Happiness – Barbara O’Neal
In this sumptuous new novel, Barbara O’Neal offers readers a celebration of food, family, and love. Haunted by an accident of which she was the lone survivor, Elena Alvarez knows how to defy the odds. And when she is suddenly offered the opportunity she’s been waiting for - the challenge of running her own kitchen in a world-class restaurant - she knows it is a chance she has to take, even if it does mean relocating to Aspen, where she doesn’t know a soul, and usurping the job of a notably volatile chef. So with her faithful dog and her grandmother’s recipes, she arrives in Colorado to find a restaurant in as desperate need of a fresh start as she is - and a man whose passionate approach to food and life rivals her own. For Elena, old ghosts don’t die quietly, but some remain with her for a reason. And, through all the ups and downs, she knows the chance for happiness is worth every risk.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
A spellbinding amalgam of murder, mystery, family saga, love story and financial intrigue. Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, is hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance and Lisbeth Salander, a 24 year old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it — assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discover a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism... and an unexpected connection between themselves. A contagiously exciting, intelligent novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Schaffer
January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society's members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun but her father's account of the event. Now aged fourteen, she yearns for her mother and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, Lily has only one friend Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.

Wanting – Richard Flanagan
Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan emphasises two of the most contradictory characteristics of Queen Victoria's reign; the "wanting" or desire to conquer other lands and bring "civilization" to them, and the "want," or lack, of empathy and respect for the people and cultures which they deliberately destroy in the process. The same contradictory characteristics are also reflected in (hypocritical) personal relationships: desire is "uncivilized," something to be overcome, though men routinely indulge their passions with those far "beneath" them. These ideas provide the thematic underpinning of this novel.

14.07.09