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pick of the
week
TIME WE HAVE TAKEN by CARROLL STEVEN
The straight line of history has led, and was always leading, to this day and they have all been lucky enough to be alive, right now, to greet the moment. One suburban morning in summer 1970, Peter van Rijn, proprietor of the television and wireless shop, realises that his suburb is 100 years old. He contacts the mayor, who assembles a committee, and celebrations are eagerly planned. That same morning, just a few streets way, Rita is awakened by a dream of her husband's snores. It is years since Vic moved north, and left their house of empty silences, yet his life remains bound up with hers. Their son, too, has moved on - Michael is at university, exploring new ideas and the heady world of grown-up love. Yet Rita still stubbornly stays in the old street, unable to imagine leaving the house she has tended so lovingly for so long. Instead she has taken on the care of another house as well - that of the widowed Mrs Webster, owner of the suburb's landmark factory, now in decline.As these lives entwine, and the committee commissions its centenary mural and prepares to commemorate progress, history - in the shape of the new, post-war generation represented by Michael and his friends - is heading straight for them...The Time We Have Taken is a celebration of the rhythms and intricacies of suburban life, and a meditation on its limitations. Steven Carroll achieves a luminous intimacy with his characters as he explores both a society teetering on the edge of radical change, and the richness and complexity of that most common of Australian experiences - the suburbs.
Our Price $27.99
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BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by DIAZ JUNOT
Things have never been easy for Oscar. A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican family in New Jersey, he's sweet but disastrously overweight. He dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien and he keeps falling hopelessly in love. Poor Oscar may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuk --the ancient curse that has haunted his family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, violent accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love.With dazzling energy and insight Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous lives of Oscar; his runaway sister Lola; their beautiful mother Belicia; and in the family's uproarious journey from the Dominican Republic to the US and back.Rendered with uncommon warmth and humour, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Waopresents an astonishing vision of the endless human capacity to persevere - and to risk it all - in the name of love. A literary triumph, this novel confirms Junot Diaz as one of the funniest, warmest and most exciting writers of our time.
Our Price $30.99
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SAIL by PATTERSON JAMES
Since the death of her husband, Anne Dunne and her three children have struggled in every way. In a last ditch effort to save the family, Anne plans an elaborate sailing vacation to bring everyone together once again. But only an hour out of port, everything is going wrong. The teenage daughter, Carrie, is planning to drown herself. The teenage son, Mark, is high on drugs and ten-year-old Ernie is nearly catatonic. This is the worst vacation ever.
Anne manages to pull things together bit by bit, but just as they begin feeling like a family again, something catastrophic happens. Survival may be the least of their concerns.
Written with the blistering pace and shocking twists that only James Patterson can master, SAIL takes "Lost" and "Survivor" to a new level of terror.
Our Price $30.99
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BEACH HOUSE by GREEN JANE
Nan is an independent, free-spirited woman who couldn't care less what people think about her living alone in her beloved beach house. But when she discovers that the money she was relying on is running out and her house might be at stake, she knows that something has to change. Nan decides to rent out rooms in her house for the summer and soon people start moving in, filling it with noise, laughter and tears. Among them is Daniel, a recently separated father of two young girls, who's struggling to find out who he really is, and Daff, the single mother of a truculent teenager who blames her mother unreservedly for the divorce. As the house comes to life again, Nan finds her family extending. Her son, Michael, comes home for the summer and then an unexpected visitor turns up, turning all their lives upside down...Compelling, absorbing and poignant, The Beach House is a story of friendship, second chances and those moments that can change your life.
Our Price $30.99
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TICKLEBELLY TALES AND OTHER STORIES FROM THE PEOPLE OF THE HYDRO by FELTON HEATHER
The Hydro has been integral to the development of Australia's island state Tasmania for almost a century. Much has been written about its role in generating the energy that drove the local economy and how it dominated the political and cultural life through much of the 20th century. Less is known about the thousands of people who worked for the government-owned corporation and the impact this had on their lives and their families.
Ticklebelly tales and other stories from the people of the Hydro is a social history told fron the varying viewpoints of employies, contractors, their spouses and children. Individuals share memories, anecdotes and opinions speaking directly to the reader about their experiences, many of which were pivotal to Tasmania's development.
The stories are complemented by nearly 2,000 photographs which bring to life the events and technical processes described in the text and provide a visual introduction to the people of the Hydro and the places where they lived and worked.
Our Price $69.99
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