| Cold coast by Robyn MundyBorrow it
In 1932, Wanny Woldstad, a young widow, travels to Svalbard, daring to enter the Norwegian trappers' fiercely guarded male domain. She must prove to Anders Saeterdal, her trapping partner who makes no secret of his disdain, that a woman is fit for the task. Over the course of a Svalbard winter, Wanny and Saeterdal will confront polar bears, traverse glaciers, withstand blizzards and the dangers of sea ice, and hike miles to trap Arctic fox, all in the frigid darkness of the four-month polar night. For Wanny, the darkness hides her own deceptions that, if exposed, speak to the untenable sacrifice of a 1930s woman longing to fulfil a dream. Alongside the raw, confronting nature of the trappers' work, is the story of a young blue Arctic fox, itself a hunter, who must eke out a living and navigate the trappers' world if it is to survive its first Arctic winter. |
| Four treasures of the sky by Jenny Tinghui ZhangBorrow it
Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Over the years that follow, she is forced to keep reinventing herself to survive. From a calligraphy school to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her. As anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the country in a wave of unimaginable violence, Daiyu must draw on each of the selves she has been - including the ones she most wants to leave behind - to finally claim her own name and story. |
| The good wife of bath by Karen BrooksBorrow it England, The Year of Our Lord, 1364. When married off aged 12 to an elderly farmer, Eleanor Cornfed, who's constantly told to seek redemption for her many sins, quickly realises it won't matter what she says or does, God is not on her side - or any poor woman's for that matter. But Eleanor will not bow meekly to fate. Even if five marriages, several pilgrimages, many lovers, violence, mayhem, and wildly divergent fortunes do not for a peaceful life make. Aided and abetted by her trusty god-sibling Alyson, the counsel of one Geoffrey Chaucer, and a good head for business, Eleanor fights to protect those she loves from the vagaries of life, the character deficits of her many husbands, the brutalities of medieval England and her own fatal flaw, a lusty appreciation of mankind. All while continuing to pursue the one thing all women want - control of their own lives. |
| Her hidden genius by Marie BenedictBorrow it
Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider - brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is assigned to work on DNA, she believes she can unearth its secrets. Rosalind knows if she just takes one more X-ray picture - one more after thousands - she can unlock the building blocks of life. Never again will she have to listen to her colleagues complain about her, especially Maurice Wilkins who'd rather conspire about genetics with James Watson and Francis Crick than work alongside her. Then it finally happens - the double helix structure of DNA reveals itself to her with perfect clarity. But what unfolds next, Rosalind could have never predicted. |
| Homecoming by Kate MortonBorrow it
After being laid off from her job as a journalist in London, Jess returns to Sydney to be with her beloved grandmother, Nora, who has suffered a fall. Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused. At loose ends in Nora's house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora's bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find… |
| Horse by Geraldine BrooksBorrow it
Kentucky, 1850. Jarrett, an enslaved groom, and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. As the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name painting the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamour of any racetrack. New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a 19th equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance. Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly drawn to one another through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. |
| The last heir to Blackwood library by Hester FoxBorrow it
With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Blackwood Abbey is foreboding, the servants reserved and suspicious, but there is a treasure waiting behind locked doors - a magnificent library. Despite cryptic warnings from the staff, Ivy feels irresistibly drawn to its dusty shelves, where familiar works mingle with strange, esoteric texts. She senses something else in the library too, a presence that seems to have a will of its own. Rumours swirl in the village about the abbey's previous owners, about ghosts and curses, and an enigmatic manuscript at the centre of it all. As events grow more sinister, it will be up to Ivy to uncover the library's mysteries to reclaim her own story-before it vanishes forever. |
| The librarian of burned books by Brianna Labuskes Borrow it
For fans of The Rose Code and The Paris Library, The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war. Inspired by the true story of the Council of Books in Wartime - the WWII organisation founded by booksellers, publishers, librarians, and authors to use books as "weapons in the war of ideas" – this novel is an unforgettable historical novel, a haunting love story, and a testament to the beauty, power, and goodness of the written word. |
| The lost English girl by Julia KellyBorrow it
Set in 1935 Liverpool, The lost English girl tells the story of Viv Byrne, a young woman from a strict Catholic family who becomes pregnant after a fling with Jewish jazz musician Joshua Levinson. Forced into a swift wedding, Viv's hopes of escaping her mother's scrutiny are shattered when Joshua makes a life-changing decision on their wedding day. Five years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter to the countryside. However, Viv soon learns that the countryside isn't immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua's help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again. |
| The marriage portrait by Maggie O’FarrellBorrow it
Florence, 1561. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage and her father to accept on her behalf. As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting which is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance. |
| The sawdust house by David Whish-WilsonBorrow it
San Francisco, 1856. Irish-born James 'Yankee' Sullivan is being held in jail by the Committee of Vigilance, which aims to rout the Australian criminals from the town. As Sullivan's mistress seeks his release and as his fellow prisoners are taken away to be hanged, the convict tells a story of triumph and tragedy, of his daring escape from penal servitude in Australia; how he became America's most celebrated boxer; and how he met the true love of his life. |
| The secret book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan HenryBorrow it
Amidst the chaos of World War II, sisters Hazel and Flora are evacuated from London to a rural village. In the Aberdeen family's quaint stone cottage, Hazel distracts her younger sister with a fairy tale about a magical land they can escape to that is all their own, Whisperwood. However, tragedy happens when Flora vanishes near the River Thames, leaving Hazel to shoulder the burden of her sister's disappearance. Twenty years later, Hazel's ordered life is disrupted when she unearths a mysterious picture book, Whisperwood and the River of Stars, that may hold the secret to Flora's disappearance… |
| Take my hand by Dolen Perkins-ValdeBorrow it
Montgomery, Alabama. 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference in her community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a tumbledown cabin, she's surprised to find that her new patients are just eleven and thirteen years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black, and for those handling their welfare benefits, that's reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her new responsibilities, she takes India and Erica into her heart and comes to care for their family as though they were her own. But one day she arrives at their door to discover the unthinkable has happened, and nothing will ever be the same. |
| Violeta by Isabel AllendeBorrow it
A woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life will be marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth. Through her father's prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. |
