Cammeray Bookshop’s Summer Bestsellers

Happy New Year and welcome to 2010!

We hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas break and, whether you are still on holiday or are back at work already, we want to make sure you get the most enjoyment possible out of your summer. And, since it seems we can’t count on the sun to shine every day this summer, we’d like to suggest ten novels guaranteed not to let you down.

Here are our Top Ten Bestselling novels so far this summer and you can find them all in store at Cammeray Bookshop:

1: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

A classic word-of-mouth bestseller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was one of the most exciting new crime novels of the decade. Published posthumously, this intelligent mystery has won legions of fans purely on the basis of its top class writing and absorbing plot. Few crime novels come more highly recommended.

2: Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel

The winner of the 2009 Booker Prize is remarkable for its ability to explore both the wider politics of Tudor England and the individual psychology of one of its most influential yet maligned reformers. Oliver Cromwell has long been painted the villain but Wolf Hall presents a fresh and compelling new look at this fascinating man.

3: The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver

The long-awaited second novel from the author of the spell-binding Poisonwood Bible. From the revolutionary household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the paranoid hearings of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, The Lacuna is a sweeping, politically charged narrative that beguiles you with its beauty.

4: A Song in the Daylight – Paullina Simons

Paullina Simons has become a regular favourite for Australian readers and her latest book delivers the same emotionally intense ride we are used to. Larissa is an outwardly successful career woman, wife and mother but she still risks throwing it all away for the love of another man. Not your average affair novel by a long shot.

5: The Girl Who Played with Fire – Stieg Larsson

The scintillating sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo featuring the crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist and vengeful punk heroine Lisbeth Salander. Wanted by the police for the murder of two reporters, Lisbeth has disappeared. Mikael, convinced of Lisbeth’s innocence uncovers the truth about her disturbing past.

6: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Stieg Larsson

The stunning conclusion to the Millenium Trilogy. Lisbeth Salander lies in intesnive care and her personal vendetta against the men and the corrupt government institutions that destroyed her life hangs by a thread. If you haven’t already picked up the late Stieg Larsson’s incredible series you need to pay attention.

7: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer

Like Stieg Larsson, 70 year old retired librarian Mary Ann Shafer died just months before her debut novel became an international publishing phenomenon. Glorious and heart warming, it is a celebration of literature and the human spirit and an intriguing portrait of the Channel Isles under German Occupation.

8: A Week in December – Sebastian Faulks

A hugely ambitious novel from one of Britain’s greatest living novelists. A Week in December is a Dickensian satire on modern London, a brilliant state-of-the-nation thriller that brings together everyone from investment bankers, Tory MP’s and literary critics to radicalised Islamic youth,  stoners and tube drivers.

9: Truth – Peter Temple

Peter Temple’s stylistic follow-up novel to his stand out Australian crime novel The Broken Shore. Set in a noirish, corrupt Melbourne and a bush-fire wracked Victoria, Truth follows Inspector Steve Villani, head of the Victorian Police Homicide Squad as he investigates a series of gruesome murders.

10: Ordinary Thunderstorms – William Boyd

A twist of fate puts Adam Kindred in the wrong place at the wrong time as he becomes witness to a murder and goes on the run. But his pursuers have their hands on the levers of power and the only way to disappear in the 21st Century is to give up his identity and everything that makes him a modern citizen.

Christmas Newsletter

Welcome to Christmas at Cammeray Bookshop!

Can you believe it’s already our second Christmas in our beautiful Cammeray store? We would like to take this opportunity to thank all you loyal customers and welcome all our new friends who have discovered us this year in Cammeray Square. We thank all of you for your support and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Here at Cammeray we know how stressful Christmas shopping can be; with so many people to buy for, huge crowds to battle, and no spare shop assistants to help cut through the overwhelming range of stocking fillers, novelty items and holiday kitsch to find the perfect gift for each of your loved ones. At Cammeray Bookshop we’ve been careful to select the best books for the summer and we pride ourselves on knowing all about the books we sell so we can help you pick the right book for the right person. And don’t forget, we offer much more than only books; with a fantastic range of jewelry, cards and other gift ideas, there’s something for everyone at Cammeray Bookshop. So if you want to  take the hassle and uncertainty out of your Christmas Shopping, come visit us at Cammeray Bookshop and we’ll help you out.

In this Christmas Newsletter you will find the Independent Book Guide, gift ideas, Signed Copies and Margaret’s Summer Recommendations.

The 2009 Independent Book Guide

Searching for that perfect Christmas gift? Need a great summer read to savour on your holiday? The 2009 Independent Book Guide is now available from Cammeray Bookshop.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Stieg Larsson

The stunning conclusion to the Millenium Trilogy.

Lisbeth Salander is plotting her revenge – against the men who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that nearly destroyed her life. But it is not going to be a straightforward campaign. After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in Intensive Care, and is set to face trial for three murders and one attempted murder on her eventual release.

With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist from Millennium Magazine, Salander must not only prove her innocence, but identify and denounce the corrupt politicians that have allowed the vulnerable to become victims of abuse and violence. Once a victim herself, Salander is ready to fight back.

Anyone who read The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire will want to read this book.

Grand Obsessions – Alasdair McGregor

This is a joint biography of architects Walter Burley Griffin, of Canberra fame, and his wife, Marion Mahony Griffin. After their formative years in Chicago – the centre of the Prairie School of architecture made most famous by Frank Lloyd Wright, for whom they both worked – the pair moved to Australia in 1914 after Walter won the competition to design the new national capital. Amid controversy, slander and almost overwhelming opposition, they stayed on in Australia to make material as much of their vision as the stultifying Australian bureaucracy would allow.

They remained here until 1935, designing many buildings in Melbourne – such as Newman College – and in Sydney – particularly in the suburb they created, Castlecrag, where they also played an important cultural role in the local community. In 1935 they moved to Lucknow, India, where Walter designed several important public buildings. But his life was cut short and he died in India in 1937 at the age of sixty-six. Marion returned to a life of obscurity in Chicago, where she died in 1961. Since her death, scholars have come to realise that she was not simply Walter’s helpmate but his equal creative partner.

This is the fascinating story of two dogged individuals of great talent and vision and their fight against the forces of bureaucracy and mediocrity; of the building of Canberra and the troubled birth of the Australian national identity; of a pioneering woman who achieved extraordinary things but was rarely credited with that achievement; and of the nature of fame in a small, young country uncertain of its position in the world.

Margaret Recommends: THE LACUNA by Barbara Kingsolver

It has been a long wait, almost 10 years,  since Barbara Kingsolver mesmerised readers with The Poisonwood Bible, truly one of the great debut novels of our time. The Lacuna is a gripping story of identity, connection with our past, and the power of words to create or devastate. Crossing two decades, from the vibrant revolutionary murals of Mexico City to the halls of a Congress bent on eradicating the colour red, The Lacuna is as deep and rich as the New World itself.

Born in the US, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is mostly a liability to his social-climbing mother, Salomé. From a coastal island jungle to the unpaved neighbourhoods of 1930s Mexico City, his fortunes never steady as Salomé finds her rich men-friends always on the losing side of the Mexican Revolution.

He aims for invisibility, observing his world and recording everything with a peculiar selfless irony in his notebooks. Life is whatever he learns from servants putting him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Making himself useful in the household of the muralist, his wife Frida Kahlo, and exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky, young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot in with art and revolution.

A violent upheaval sends him north to a nation newly caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. In Carolina, he remakes himself in America’s hopeful image. Under the watch of his peerless stenographer, Violet Brown, he finds an extraordinary use for his talents of observation. But political winds continue to push him between north and south, in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach – the lacuna – between truth and public presumption.

The Lacuna is a gripping story of identity, connection with our past, and the power of words to create or devastate. Crossing two decades, from the vibrant revolutionary murals of Mexico City to the halls of a Congress bent on eradicating the colour red, The Lacuna is as deep and rich as the New World itself.

Crocodile Tears: Alex Rider Book 8 – Anthony Horowitz

8th title in the thrilling adventure series, Alex Rider!

Targeted by a hitman and under threat of his past being exposed by the media, Alex reluctantly turns to MI6. But their help doesn’t come cheap: they need Alex to spy on the activities at a GM crop plant. There he spots Desmond Cain, a high profile charity organiser, who realises that Alex is on to him and the real plans for the money he’s raising. Kidnapped and whisked off to Africa, Alex learns the full horror of Cain’s plot: to create an epic disaster that will kill millions. Getting word to MI6 only makes matters worse. Now, before even facing the real enemy, Alex must also stop his own side before they unwittingly trigger the death of a whole nation.

Who Wants to be a Poodle? Not Me! – Lauren Child

Trixie Twinkle Toes doesn’t want a maid to plump her cushions. She wants to roll in the mud and paddle in the puddles. She doesn’t want to be carried over them by a butler.

Trixie Twinkle Toes may look like a prancing poodley poodle. But, on the inside, she’s a dazzlingly daring dog ready to make a big splash…

A stunning new book from the award-winning international star and creator of Charlie and Lola, Lauren Child, is always a delicious treat. Prepare yourselves for the chicest, funniest and most stylish picture book of the autumn.

Recommended: STEPHANIE ALEXANDER’S KITCHEN GARDEN COMPANION

 

If you have ever dreamed of picking fresh salad leaves for the evening meal, gathering vine-ripened tomatoes or pulling up your own sweet carrots, this is the book for you.  Follow in the footsteps of one of Australia’s best-loved cooks and food writers as she reveals the secrets of rewarding kitchen gardening.  Be encouraged by detailed gardening notes that explain how adults and children alike can plant, grow and harvest 73 different vegetables, herbs and fruit, and try some of the 250 recipes that will transform your fresh produce into delicious meals.  Whether you have a large plot in a suburban backyard or a few pots on a balcony, you will find everything you need to get started in this inspiring and eminently useful garden-to-table guide.

To read an extract and sneak a peak inside this book click on read more below:

Review: WONDERS OF A GODLESS WORLD – Andrew McGahan

In Wonders of a Godless World former Miles Franklin winner Andrew McGahan has written what is essentially a fable, albeit a fable of planetary scope and awe-inspiring grandeur. At the heart of this expansive novel lies a beguilingly simple message: life is all the more precious because it is brief.

It is not an original theme by any means: the contemplation of our own mortality has ever been a central concern of literature, from Achiles to modern crime thrillers, from the sublime poetry of John Keats to our popular fascination with vampires. The idea of dignity and the achievement of  humanity in death has always preoccupied our imagination. The understanding that we need to accept that one day we will die is often best explored when we entertain the possibility of life without death and examine the consequences of immortality. Wonders of a Godless World, unfolding majestically within the unlikely walls of a remote insane asylum, charts the dehumanising effect of immortality with exquisite precision.