Here are the Library team’s top recommendations
Ten steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
‘There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.’-Hannah Gadsby, Nanette
If you only read one biography – or even only one book this year, please make it Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby (AKA Hanwah Godslay)
It’s the sort of biography that stays with you long after you’ve finished it and one that you will want to pick up and re-read.
You don’t need to be familiar with Hannah’s stand up shows for this book to have a massive impact on you, but my guess is that if you haven’t seen the shows prior to reading the book, you will go straight to Netflix and binge Nanette and Douglas.
Gadsby’s unique stand-up special, Nanette, was a viral success. But while her worldwide fame might have looked like an overnight sensation, her path from open mic to the global stage was hard-fought and anything but linear. Ten Steps to Nanette chronicles the obstacles and setbacks as well as celebrating the successes.
Ten Steps to Nanette traces Gadsby’s growth as a queer person from Tasmania where homosexuality was illegal until 1997. It follows her changing relationship with comedy and looks at her struggle with late-in-life diagnoses of autism and ADHD.
Ten Steps to Nanette is brutal in parts, hilarious in others and always thought provoking. I could not put it down.
Library Call Number: BIO 792.702 GAD
Eureka! Mind blowing science every day of the year by New Scientist
Could you surf down an erupting volcano?
Why do zebras have stripes?
Are you breathing the same air as Leonardo da Vinci?
Are there any green mammals?
Why do pineapples have spikes?
Why do songs get stuck in your head?
What happens when black holes collide?
Can you extract your DNA?
From how to measure the speed of light using chocolate, to why dogs howl at sirens, Eureka! brings together 365 mind blowing questions, fascinating facts and exciting experiments.
If you’ve ever wondered how to escape quicksand, what would happen if the moon vanished, and why cats (nearly) always land on their feet, you’ve come to the right place.
Library Call Number 507 ALK
Everyone in my family has killed someone by Benjamin Stevenson.
Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle meet Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club in this fiendishly clever blend of classic and modern murder mystery. It’s one of the most original mystery/comedy books I’ve read and a real page turner.
It is getting a lot of buzz and following a heated auction in Hollywood, film/TV rights were sold to HBO. Major rights deals have been completed in the US, UK and 16 translation territories so far!
All you need to know about this book is this – there’s a family reunion where the guests don’t get along despite being related. The group is stranded in a snowstorm and the bodies keep piling up – and everyone has killed someone.
Do yourself a favour and read this book!
Library Call number CRI F STEV
The Kelly Hunters – Grantlee Kieza
When Ned Kelly and his band of young bushrangers ambushed and killed three brave policemen in a remote mountain camp in 1878, they sparked the biggest and most expensive manhunt Australia had seen. The desperate search would end when Kelly and his gang, wearing suits of armour, tried to derail a train before waging their final bloody gun battle with police in the small Victorian town of Glenrowan.
In the 20 months between those shootouts and aided by a network of informers, hundreds of lawmen, soldiers, undercover agents and a team of Aboriginal trackers combed rugged mountains in freezing conditions in search of the outlaws. The police officers were brave, poorly paid and often ailing, some nearing retirement and others young with small children, but they risked death and illness in the hope of finding the men who had killed their comrades.
The hunt for the Kelly gang became a fierce battle of egos between senior police as they prepared for the final shootout with Australia’s most infamous bushrangers, a gun battle that etched Ned Kelly’s physical toughness and defiance of authority into Australian folklore. The Kelly Hunters is a fascinating and compelling account of the other side of the legendary Kelly story.
Library Call number 364.155 KIE
Mouth to mouth – by Antoine Wilson
A struggling author is stuck at the airport, his flight endlessly delayed. As he stares at the departure board and browses the shops, he bumps into a former classmate, Jeff who is waiting for the same flight. The charismatic Jeff invites the narrator to drinks in the First Class lounge, and there, swearing him to secrecy, begins telling him the fascinating and disturbing story of his life, starting with a pivotal incident from his youth.
Alone on the beach, he noticed a man drowning in the rough surf, his fate resting in Jeff’s hands. Overwhelmed but ultimately determined to help, Jeff rescued and resuscitated the unconscious man. Unexpectedly traumatised by the event, Jeff develops a fixation on the man he saved, sure that they are now inextricably linked. Upon discovering that the man, Francis, is a renowned art dealer, Jeff finds a job at his gallery in hopes of connecting with Francis and processing the event. Even though Francis seems to have no recollection of the incident, he takes Jeff under his wing, and Jeff becomes increasingly involved in Francis’s life, dating his daughter and attending important art world parties.
As the two grow closer, Jeff notices some of Francis’s more unsavoury characteristics but, convinced that their encounter on the beach is fated, brushes his concerns aside and continues to pursue a deeper connection with Francis, even as the nature of their relationship grows darker…
Library Call number F WILS
