We have 40 free books to give out from publishers Allen & Unwin and Harper Collins. The books are exclusive, not even available in stores yet! We have a limited number, if you want a copy act quickly.
Here's what to do:
- Choose a single book you want to review (only one per person)
- Add it to your bookshelf and join the associated book club (the first members to do this will get a copy of the book)
- Ensure your address details are filled out in your profile so we can send you the book
- Tell your friends!
Conditions:
- Write a review at least a paragraph in length, if reviews are daunting create a set of questions for yourself to answer
- To avoid rights encroachment you must have an address in Australia or New Zealand (If you live in another country tell us and we'll see if we can organise with publishers in your neighborhood)
6 bonus books:
For those who participate the most in the forums we'll hand out an additional book, to be announced.
Here are the books (the full details of all books are below):
Courtesy of
Allen & UnwinCourtesy of
Harper CollinsNow it's time to make your selection.
By Sarah Hay - Allen & Unwin
The compelling new novel of life, land and love in the Top End by Sarah Hay, winner of The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for her first novel, Skins in 2001.
On a rundown station in Australia’s remote top end, life for Susannah is isolated, difficult and nothing is as she expected. A dark history seeps through the land and the air shimmers with heat and an intangible menace. Then a young English girl, Laura, arrives to work as a jillaroo and falls in love with Texas, the Aboriginal head stockman, naively believing that her love will pull him out of long-held destructive habits. Texas is a powerful story of the land and the past and desire, of the ruthless nature of this country and the fragility of the people trying to force their will upon it.
By Karen Viggers - Allen & Unwin
A novel of love, loss and the healing power of nature.
A man arrives in a small coastal town, obsessed with that he has lost, broken by grief. He is drawn to Callista, a young artist who has her own compelling reasons for wanting to be alone. A friendship develops, then a passionate affair, but everything is challenged when their past demons are accidentally revealed. Everything comes to a head with a whale stranding on a remote beach, and the whole town becomes involved in a tense and uncertain rescue; a rescue that challenges the beliefs and philosophies of the local community as well as the outsiders who assist in the rescue. The stranding brings the characters together in an emotionally charged situation that produces unusual rifts and liaisons and an unexpected outcome. Beautifully written, The Stranding is a lyrical and heartfelt story about loss, memory and the power of love.
By Robyn Scott - Allen & Unwin
An uplifting, engaging and deeply affectionate portrayal of a wonderfully eccentric family and their life in Botswana.
This is the extraordinary story of the Scott family’s fifteen years in Botswana, during which Robyn’s mother single-handedly home-schooled her three children, whilst her husband ran a flying doctor practice, attempting, with often unexpected results, to adapt his experience to the unique demands of a rural practice and the growing problem of AIDS. Set against the backdrop of one of Africa’s rare democratic success stories battling with one of the continent’s worst AIDS crises, this book remains an uplifting, engaging and deeply affectionate portrayal of an extraordinary place and family.
By Stefan Merrill Block - Allen & Unwin
A heart-breaking, multi-stranded novel about love, loss, family and so much more.
At seventy, Abel is a hermit, resigned to memories of the family he has lost. Hundreds of miles away, in suburban Austin, fifteen year old Seth is devastated when his mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Though neither one knows of the other’s existence, Seth and Abel share a unique tradition: as children, both were told stories of Isadora, a fantastical land free from the sorrows of memory. Spanning continents and generations, The Story of Forgetting is the tale of how loss, however devastating, can ultimately forge profound meaning.
By Peter Brett - Harper Collins
The stunning debut fantasy novel from author Peter Brett.
The Painted Man, book one of the Demon trilogy, is a captivating and thrilling fantasy adventure, pulling the reader into a world of demons, darkness and heroes.
Mankind has ceded the night to the corelings: demons that rise up out of the ground each day at dusk, killing and destroying at will until dawn, when the sun banishes them back to the Core. As darkness falls, the world's few surviving humans hide behind magical wards, praying that the magic will see them through another night.
As years passed, the distance between each tiny village stretched farther and farther. It seems that nothing can stop or harm the corelings, and nothing can unite the dwindling populations.
Born into these isolated hamlets are three children: A Messenger teaches 10-year-old Arlen that it is fear, rather than the demons, which has crippled humanity. When she is only 13 summers old, Leesha's perfect life is destroyed by a simple lie, and she is reduced to gathering herbs for an old woman more fearsome than the demons at night. And young Rojer's life is changed irrevocably when a travelling minstrel comes to his town and plays his fiddle.
But these three children all have something in common. They are all stubborn, and know that there is more to the world than what they've been told, if only they can risk leaving their safe wards to find it.
By Kim Westwood - Harper Collins
Down in the generator rooms at Kingdom Fort True Believer Centre, transfect ‘E’ is confessing, and the Nathans are taking it very badly …
Assumpta Viali likes her solitude. A chronic loner, she dispenses rough justice ‘as required’ for Eustace Crane II, the Nathans’ crotchety Head of Council.
For Eustace, however, nothing has gone right since Tribulation. He’s been left the leader of a bunch of pithless wonders hiding in their crumbling citadels, something blasphemous tucked in their basements. And while his scary minder heads off on secret business of her own, out in the Sorry Plains the Children of the Maglev prepare for the Afterlife.
But one among them has a far less sacrificial future in mind.
Gripping and edgy - Betwixt is a dark journey into the troubled lives of a group of teenagers brought together by the strange powers they develop.
Author Dan Pink has written two other books, including a New York Times bestseller, and often contributes to prominent business and technology publications. He studied the manga industry in Tokyo during 2007 before releasing his current title. Still not intrigued? Try viewing the book's trailer below: