Last week I shared 9 of 18 books I aim to read in 2018. I bought most of those titles at the Perth Writers Week. Although a few of the following titles also caught my attention because of Perth Writers Week, most of them are simply an eclectic mix of books that appeal to me. I hope you’ll find a few that appeal to you, too.
Other Perth Writers Week titles to add to my TBR pile
10. The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton
I love the way Tim Winton uses language, whether that is in one of the rare public talks he gives, such as his Saturday evening address at Perth Writers Week, or in his books. Winton spoke about the effects of ‘toxic masculinity’, and the protagonist of The Shepherd’s Hut is a young man who is bearing the brunt of its impact.
11. Tin Man by Sarah Winman
I am yet to read anything by Sarah Winman, but I have several friends who recommend her. Tin Man is Winman’s third novel, after When God was a Rabbit and A Year of Marvellous Ways. I do like the premise of Tin Man, which begins with a painting won in a raffle, and two inseperable boys who grow into men. Then ‘Annie walks into their lives, and it changes nothing and everything’.
12. Swimming on the Lawn by Yasmin Hamid
I would like to have heard Yasmin Hamid at Perth Writers Week, but sadly missed out this time. This novel, aimed at 12 -14 year olds, tells the story of Farida and her family growing up in Sudan during the 1960s. Her happy childhood is abruptly disrupted after a sudden military coup.
A few more 2018 releases I want to read
13. The Secrets at Ocean’s Edge by Kali Napier
After losing almost everything during the Depression, Ernie and Lily Hass, and their daughter, Girlie move to the west coast of Australia to open a summer guest house. In walks Tommy, Lily’s shell-shocked brother. His search for answers threaten to unravel the family. I’m particularly interested to find out how Kali Napier used her own family history in the crafting of this novel.
14. Between Us by Clare Atkins
Clare Atkins first novel, Nona and Me is set in the mining town in which I grew up, and she could have been writing about my own teenage years. Now, Atkins is writing about something else that’s close ot my heart. One of the protagonists in her new novel, Between Us is an Iranian asylum seeker who is detained at Wickham Point Detention Centre, on the outskirts of Darwin. Still a teenager, Anahita is only allowed out of the centre to attend school. She develops a friendship with Jono, a boy at school, whose father is a guard at the detention centre.
15. Water Under the Bridge by Lily Malone
I’ve known Lily Malone for more than a year through an on-line accountability and encouragement group, but we only got to meet and chat properly the morning after her recent book launch in Margaret River. Water Under the Bridge is the first in Lily Malone’s Chalk Hill series. In it, Ella has moved to Chalk Hill partly to begin a career as a real estate agent, and partly to live as far away from a swimming pool as she can. She hasn’t been in a pool since a bad decision ruined her chances of Olympic selection. Water Under the Bridge has numerous twists and turns, as well as a dose of rural romance, and it kept me reading until one in the morning after I left the book launch.
16. Ambulance Girls Under Fire by Deborah Burrows
Set in London during the Second World war, Ambulance Girls Under Fire focuses on the story of Celia Ashton, who was a secondary character in the first book in the series, Ambulance Girls. Celia’s husband is a Nazi sympathiser, and she refuses to return to him after his release from prison. Instead she joins forces with a man who appears to despise her in order to help a Jewish orphan.
17. The Passengers by Eleanor Limprecht
Sarah hasn’t been back to Australia since she left in 1946, bound for the United States as a war bride. Now, as she travels by cruise ship with her granddaughter, Hannah, she shares the story of her life. As with war widows, we don’t often hear the stories of war brides – Australian girls who married US (and sometimes UK) servicemen and then moved across the world to be with their husbands.
18. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azan
Set in Iran in the period immediately after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree uses the lyrical magic realism style of classical Persian storytelling to draw us into a family caught up in the brutal and chaotic world of post-revolutionary Iran.
Over to You
As you can see, my reading tastes are rather eclectic – from historical fiction to magic realism to YA to rural romance, and everything in between. Essentially, I’m looking for anything that keeps me turning the pages to find out what happens next, and has me giving a damn about the characters I meet along the way.
What’s on your list of books to buy in 2018? Or have you read a new release you think I should add to mine?
Thanks for including my book, Melinda! I hope you enjoy it. As for your query about how I used my family history to craft the story — an incident I found while doing a Trove search sparked the premise for one of the characters. But this is a work of fiction. 🙂
Hi Kali, thanks so much for taking the time to comment on my post! So good to know your story of finding something on Trove to spark the idea for one of the characters. I was curious because I have an idea for a novel based on several women in my family tree, but I want it to be the best story it can be without being constrained by ‘what really happened’.
The main constraints I placed on my story were ‘what was likely to have happened to people who might have lived at this time in this place?’ Other conscious choices were about whose story I was telling, as well as, whose I was NOT telling.
They are really useful considerations – thanks for sharing them with me. I’ll definitely have your voice in my head asking those questions as I research and write.