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Crimson Light Polished Wood
Monica Raszewski
Leonora, a British teacher starting anew in Melbourne, finds unexpected love with Margaret, a fellow educator.
Their bond is deep and meaningful but is tragically cut short when Margaret succumbs to cancer three years into their relationship.
Still reeling from grief, Leonora forges a connection with her neighbour, Anna, a Polish woman whose warmth draws her in.
As Leonora becomes more entwined in Anna’s world, she gently influences Anna's daughter, Lydia—opening her eyes to the beauty of literature and art.
Through this mentorship, the story reveals how the quiet presence of another can reshape a young life.
This is a poignant tale about the universal yearning for acceptance. It delves into the tensions we often face with those closest to us—parents, siblings, mentors— who may see us differently than we see ourselves.
Crimson Light Polished Wood is an exquisite work about art, gender, disappointment, understanding and ultimately celebration.
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What art can tell us about love
Nick Trend
So... What Can Art Really Tell Us About Love? Nick Trend’s book is like taking a stroll through a gallery with your most sentimental friend.
He’s split the story of love into seven neat sections that follow relationships from flirty beginnings to heartfelt endings.
With over 100 full-colour artworks, it’s not just about paintings of lovers—though there are plenty of those.
Love pops up in all kinds of art: dreamy landscapes, cozy still lifes, and more. Some pieces show passion, some heartbreak, and others just the comfort of connection.
Trend encourages us to look at each work and ask, “What was going on between the artist and their subject?” It’s about seeing the feeling behind the art, not just the style or technique.
At its core, this book is about people—how we fall for each other, drift apart, and sometimes hold on tight.
And how artists put all that messy, beautiful emotion into their work.
Seriously, what’s not to love about mixing art and love?
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When the museum is closed
Emi Yagi
I’ll be honest, I was first drawn to this book because of its cover—something about it just pulled me in. I know it's not the most intellectual way to choose a read, but hey, a beautiful cover has always been my weak spot. I figured it’s good to push myself into other genres once in a while, so I decided to give this one a go.
When the Museum is Closed is a whimsical queer love story from Emi Yagi, author of Diary of a Void.
Rika Horauchi’s odd new job? Chatting in Latin with a statue of Venus every Monday. She soon finds herself falling—unexpectedly and irrevocably—in love.
While juggling her weekday warehouse gig and quiet existence, Rika is pulled into Venus’s world of beauty, intellect, and emotion. But when a jealous curator vies for Venus's attention, Rika must fight for the love that changed her life.
Tender, surreal, and full of heart, this novel reimagines loneliness, freedom, and what it means to be truly seen.
What do you think …ready to try something new?
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In the margins
Gail Holmes
Literature possesses a remarkable ability to leap across time and space, forging bonds between people separated by generations and circumstance. As I read In the Margins, I felt an unexpected kinship with Frances Wolfrenston—a 17th-century rector’s wife and avid collector of books. Her love for Shakespeare tied her to her mother, just as her passion for reading links her to the children she teaches today. Through these shared stories, lines blur between past and present, turning solitary reading into communal connection.
In this heartfelt homage to literature, language, and the quiet strength of women, Gail Holmes draws attention to the transformative force of the everyday. Her women aren't rebels or revolutionaries—they are readers, caregivers, confidantes, and educators. Typically overlooked in historical narratives, these women linger in the periphery.
Yet, Holmes insists that history is shaped not just by bold defiance, but by gentle perseverance—demonstrating how books, language, and communal bonds wield the power to reshape the world.
A beautiful, compelling and emotionally rich story about a woman who wrote herself into the margins of books at a time when women were voiceless.
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Bookish: How reading shapes our lives
Lucy Mangan
Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives serves as a thoughtful continuation of Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, where Lucy Mangan first explored her early literary passions. In this follow-up, she reflects on how her connection to books has evolved from adolescence into midlife.
While the tone remains largely upbeat and conversational, Mangan doesn’t shy away from deeper themes including stress, grief, and the impact of the pandemic.
Her writing is warm and engaging—marked by articulate observations, heartfelt sincerity, and an obvious affection for the written word.
Bookish resonated with me. It’s written for readers by a reader—someone who, like me, dives into books not to impress, not to check titles off a list, not to win approval, but simply for the sheer love of reading. As Lucy Mangan puts it, “A love of books is something ineradicable…”
Filled with literary wisdom, cheeky charm, and a host of irresistible recommendations, Bookish celebrates the magical spaces—bookstores, libraries, and cozy corners - that shape our lives and nurture our inner bibliophile with pages of warmth, comfort and joy.
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All the words we know
Bruce Nash
All the Words We Know is a wickedly funny and a genuinely moving novel about memory, language and love.
Rose is in her eighties and has dementia, but she's not done with life just yet. Alternately sharp as a tack and spectacularly forgetful, she spends her days roaming the corridors of her aged-care facility, ruminating on the staff and residents and enduring visits from her emotionally distant children and grand-daughters. But when her friend is found dead after an apparent fall from a window, Rose embarks on an eccentric and deeply personal investigation to discover the truth and exposes all manner of secrets - even some from her own past.
With wicked humour, poignancy, and clever insight, this is an unforgettable novel about murder, secrets, and memory that is perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Fredrik Backman.
Another favourite author of mine Jacqueline Bublitz highly praises this book by saying:
'A rare, beautiful bird of a novel. All the Words We Know offers readers an immersive experience both playful and profound - I found myself speaking so many of Rose's musings out loud, revelling in their gorgeous rhythms, even as the tension of the central mystery had me racing through the pages. I loved this book!'
Well so does Gordy …
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Nature's fool
Timothy Doyle
Magical realism meets historical fiction in this expansive exploration of identity, place and belonging, which moves from Ireland to early colonial Australia.
Possessing enormous physical strength, Seamus has a sacred and intimate relationship with the sea, can shape-shift, and has been gifted with second sight. But he is no hero. Illiterate and largely mute, he is a warrior without a sword, a poet without words. In the absence of his own voice, Seamus' story is told by his son Tomas, a seannachie (a traditional Gaelic storyteller or historian) partly spinning an overblown yarn in the Celtic oral tradition and, at other times, falling into his role as schoolteacher.
Magical realism meets historical fiction in this novel, loosely based on real events occurring in the first years of white incursion into South Australia from the 1830s to the 1870s. From Ireland to the land that would become Australia, Nature's Fool crosses oceans, lands and time in its exploration of identity, place and belonging.
Request a copy via our catalogue
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The cat who saved the library
Sosuke Natsukawa
The presence of cats in libraries is a long-standing tradition, often originating from the need to control rodents in spaces where valuable manuscripts and books were stored. While the primary role of library cats was initially pest control, they often evolved into beloved mascots, offering companionship and charm to both staff and patrons.
Nanami sees nothing wrong with a library and cat combination. But a talking cat is a whole other story.
Thirteen-year-old Nanami Kosaki loves reading. The local library is a home from home and books have become her best friends. When Nanami notices books disappearing from the library shelves, she's particularly curious about a suspicious man in a grey suit whose furtive behaviour doesn't feel right. Should she follow him to see what he's up to?
When a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears to warn her about how dangerous that would be, together they're brave enough to follow the frightening trail to find out where all the books have gone. Will Nanami and Tiger overcome the challenges of the adventure ahead?
Warm, wonderful and wise, Sosuke Natsukawa's The Cat Who Saved the Library is also a powerful lesson never to underestimate the value of great literature, and a reminder always to think for ourselves, no matter what our charismatic leaders might say.
The long-awaited sequel to the The Cat Who Saved Books — a delightful and heartwarming celebration of books, libraries, cats, and the people who love them.
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The story of a heart
Rachel Clarke
“The Story of a Heart” is a profoundly moving and masterfully written account, imbued with deep humanity, empathy, and insight.
In this unforgettable narrative, Dr. Rachel Clarke recounts how one family’s immense sorrow was transformed into a life-giving act of hope.
With both compassion and clarity, she follows the urgent journey of a young girl's donated heart, weaving it together with over a century of remarkable medical breakthroughs. The story pays tribute not only to visionary surgeons but to the dedicated network of immunologists, nurses, scientists, and physicians who made such a miracle possible.
Clarke seamlessly intertwines the heartbreaking events connecting two children—one who lost her life, and one who was given a second chance—with the perspectives of the medical teams who cared for Keira in her final moments and guided her heart into Max’s new beginning. Though the story is undeniably emotional, Clarke’s ability to balance raw grief with scientific progress offers light in the darkest moments.
From its very first beat to its final pulse, the heart—both a vital organ and a timeless metaphor—embodies resilience and hope. In “The Story of a Heart,” Clarke captures not only the evolution of transplant medicine but the enduring truth that, as long as the heart beats, there is always a reason to hope.
It was good to read this powerful meditation on grief, generosity, and the extraordinary science that connects lives through a single organ and one that connects all of us.
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The correspondent
Virginia Evans
I remember especially in my late 20’s and 30’s how much I enjoyed writing letters to my friends and anticipating a letter in response, it was a wonderful way to connect with people.
So, this book The Correspondent a story about the life of an extraordinary woman revealed through her letters caught my eye.
The Correspondent is a portrait of a small life expanding, showing how one woman changes at a point when change had seemed impossible.
Sybil Van Antwerp, is corresponding with different people, so we slowly get a sense of Sybil.
She is a no-nonsense, fiercely intelligent, and steadfastly independent retired lawyer in her early seventies who maintains her privacy and uses her letter writing as a way of avoiding confrontation.
Her pithy communications are never overtly rude, but the recipients will be in no doubt about her meaning.
She has regular contact with her brother, sister-in-law and Harry, the young son of a judge she knew when she was a lawyer.
Harry is very bright, but an isolated child, and his father worries about him. Sybil’s relationship with Harry becomes a mutually important one.
There is another unfinished, ongoing series of letters Sybil writes – but never posts – to an unnamed recipient, a mystery that the reader will probably guess at as one learns more about her life.
She writes letters to authors, neighbours, her gardening club and other recipients.
One thing we find out early on is that her relationship with her two children, particularly her daughter, is distant and they have intermittent contact by email or phone.
As old age begins to bite, Sybil realises she may have to come to terms with some of her vulnerabilities and that the eloquence of her letters is no substitute for close contact with people.
A witty story about a character who touches the heart of the reader told through her letters.
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I want everything
Dominic Amerena
A contemporary debut that twists, turns, and keeps you questioning till the last page, this novel is a sharp, wickedly insightful tale of ambition, authenticity, and the fine art of deception.
We’ve all told a lie at some point—maybe just a little white one, or a misunderstanding that spiralled out of control. You didn’t get the chance to correct it, and suddenly, everyone around you believes something that isn’t true. Hopefully, they forgot, or you set the record straight. But imagine you're standing at the edge of the biggest achievement of your life, and you have to choose: honesty or success? Truth or the person you love?
For one struggling writer, an accidental slip lets him stumble upon the answer to one of Australia’s greatest literary mysteries—whatever happened to the elusive, controversial 1970s author Brenda Shales? A chance sighting at the local pool leads him to an aged care facility, and before he knows it, he’s sitting across from a woman whose disappearance left the literary world buzzing for decades. For someone who sells his body to medical science just to make rent and watches his girlfriend’s success from the sidelines, this could be his big break. If he can persuade Brenda to share her story and put it down on paper, he might finally carve out a name for himself.
But as Brenda slowly lets this stranger into her life, he finds himself revealing parts of his own story too. She seems to trust him, and everything she shares feels like gold. But trust, as we all know, can be deceiving. And when things finally come to a boiling point—over a rainy night and a plate of roast lamb—this would-be biographer has a choice to make. Will he trade his integrity for notoriety, or will he walk away?
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Beauty and sadness
Yasunari Kawabata
Yasunari Kawabata holds a distinguished place in world literature as a master of subtlety, beauty, and emotional depth.
The first book of his I read was the sublime The Snow Country, which has now led to this book - Beauty and Sadness.
Kawabata was the first Japanese writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature (1968), recognized for his ability to evoke profound emotions with restrained yet poetic prose.
His works often explore themes of loneliness, fleeting love, and the ephemeral nature of beauty, reflecting the aesthetic sensibilities of traditional Japanese culture.
Beauty and Sadness is a lyrical exploration of love, regret, and the inexorable passage of time.
Oki, a successful yet melancholic writer, returns to Kyoto in search of Otoko, the woman whose youthful affair with him left lasting scars.
Now a painter, Otoko has never fully let go of her feelings for Oki, but his reappearance unsettles not only her, but also her passionate young lover.
The novel weaves themes of nostalgia, longing, and heartbreak into a deeply atmospheric and emotionally nuanced narrative.
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Three Juliets
Minnie Darke
Following Mother's Day, I was thrilled that this unmissable, exquisitely crafted book found its way to Gordy’s Desk.
It is an intricately woven love story about mothers and daughters, and the ties – of both nature and nurture – that can never be broken.
Three dresses.
Three daughters.
One search.
In 1980, designer Claudie Miller is a household name. Girls are begging their mothers to make them her famous dress, the ‘Juliet’.
But there’s a big hole in Claudie’s life – sixteen years ago she was forced to give up her baby for adoption.
Now she’s in a race to track her daughter down before it’s too late.
In 1980, Roisin, Miranda and Bindi are turning sixteen on the same day. Raised in different families, in different parts of the country, they know nothing about each other . . . or their connection to the dress every teenager is talking about.
But the Juliet was designed with one of them in mind – and its threads are slowly pulling them closer to the truth.
Minnie Drake is an Australian author who I have recently become acquainted with – she is a lover of freshly sharpened pencils, Russian Caravan tea and books of all kinds. She lives on the beautiful island of Lutruwita/Tasmania, at the bottom of the world.
If you enjoy this book there 3 other wonderful books she has written to keep you going!
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The glass maker
Tracy Chevalier
From the moment I read The Girl with the Pearl Earring many years ago I knew I had found a writer whom I wished would keep writing for many more years and fortunately for us she has!
Her latest book The Glassmaker is as spellbinding as ever or as a review I came across said, ‘A spectacular feat, crafted by a maestra at the top of her game,’ of which I totally agree.
Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to handle.
Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime.
Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.
The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna – but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her?
To find out you will have to read the book!
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Bloomer
Carol Lefevre
Though Gordy is still a way off from 70, I found myself drawn to this new book by Carol Lefevre, of course captivated by the gorgeous cover! I have been reading Carol’s books for several years, so I was very happy to see a new book recently published.
Bloomer is a beautifully written and uplifting reflection on ageing, perfect for those looking to embrace personal growth later in life (or now). In a world that often overlooks the value of older generations, Boomers stand out as individuals who have shaped cultural and social movements. Their formative years were fuelled by ideals of peace and love, and many continue to engage with activism today.
Set against the backdrop of her suburban garden’s changing seasons, Lefevre’s memoir captures the year she turned seventy, interweaving personal reflections with thoughtful meditations on ageing—it’s quiet sorrows, its potential for solitude, and its deep connection to the past and mortality.
Ultimately, Bloomer challenges conventional views on ageing, portraying Boomers not as people nearing the end, but as individuals still evolving - ready to flourish in the later chapters of life.
Quiet City: walking in West Terrace Cemetery, Carol’s first full length work of non-fiction tracing the stories of some of the little-known inhabitants of Adelaide’s historic West Terrace Cemetery was also a very absorbing and fascinating treasure trove of Adelaide social history.
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Cello
Kate Kennedy
This new book by Kate Kennedy written as an eloquent and multitextured homage to this warmest of stringed instruments starts with a Prelude of which the first sentence is –
‘What better instrument than a cello, half thunder, half prayer, to listen to the world?’
The book takes us on two parallel voyages of discovery. Outwardly it is a journal of her travels around Europe, tracing four cellists of the 19th and 20th centuries beset by misfortune and tragedy, discovering what befell them and their instruments. But at the same time, it is her own coming to terms with the injury that silenced her own playing, through getting under the skins of these cellists, as well as through interviews with present-day players and makers.
Her accounts of her chosen cellists are peppered with ‘Interludes’, philosophical musings and explorations in art, science and lutherie.
Part quest narrative, part detective story, part philosophical meditation.
A cello has no language, yet it possesses a vocabulary wide enough to tell, bear witness, and make connections across time and continents —a feat brought to life in this brilliant new book.
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Restless Dolly Maunder
Kate Grenville
Dolly Maunder was born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society’s long-locked doors were starting to creak ajar for women.
Growing up in a poor farming family in country New South Wales but clever, energetic and determined, Dolly spent her restless life pushing at those doors.
Most women like her have disappeared from view, remembered only in family photo albums as remote figures in impossible clothes, or maybe for a lemon-pudding recipe handed down through the generations.
Restless Dolly Maunder brings one of these women to life as someone we can recognise and whose struggles we can empathise with.
In this compelling new novel, Kate Grenville uses family memories to imagine her way into the life of her grandmother.
This is the story of a woman, working her way through a world of limits and obstacles, who was able—if at a cost—to make a life she could call her own.
Her battles and triumphs helped to open doors for the women who came after.
A work of history, biography, story and memoir, all fused into a novel that suggests the great potential of literary art as redeemer, healer and pathway to understanding
. . . the writing sparkles with Grenville's gift for transcendently clear imagery.
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The life impossible
Matt Haigh
Did you enjoy Matt Haig’s previous book The Midnight Library?
I did, so I was keen to read this new book – The Life Impossible, which even came with a glowing recommendation from one of my favourite actors Benedict Cumberbatch who said it was 'A beautiful novel full of life-affirming wonder and imagination' and I think he was right!
'What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don't understand yet . . .' When retired Maths teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her.
She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.
Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the Balearics Grace searches for answers about her friend's life, and how it ended.
What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.
Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
Just a few days ago in an interview Matt Haigh himself said, 'I’m an optimist, but it’s something I’ve had to work on'.
…I certainly can relate to that!
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Rapture
By Emily Maguire
The motherless child of an English priest living in ninth-century Mainz, Agnes is a wild and brilliant girl with a deep, visceral love of God. At eighteen, to avoid a future as a wife or nun, Agnes enlists the help of a lovesick Benedictine monk to disguise herself as a man and devote her life to the study she is denied as a woman.
So begins the life of John the Englishman: a matchless scholar and scribe of the revered Fulda monastery, then a charismatic heretic in an Athens commune and, by her middle years, a celebrated teacher in Rome. There, Agnes (as John) dazzles the Church hierarchy with her knowledge and wisdom and finds herself at the heart of political intrigue in a city where gossip is a powerful—and deadly—currency.
And when the only person who knows her identity arrives in Rome, she will risk everything to once again feel what it is to be known—and loved.
One of my other favourite writers, Charlotte Wood (author of the wonderful book Stone Yard Devotional ) beautifully quoted :
“Rapture is astonishing – a scorching vision of a book. Drawing on history, legend, speculation and gossip. Maguire’s medieval girl-Pope story is made of many things: flesh, earth and blood; ambition and abegnation; rage and transcendence, all pouring into this pagan, biblical, strange and mighty work from an imagination in soaring flight.”
Also as a bonus Emily Maguire will be at Adelaide Writers' Week!
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Why do people queue for brunch?
Edited by Felicity Lewis
Here is a compelling companion for the curious reader! Something a little lighter and bit of fun for this holiday period and for anyone who has ever wondered … just about anything! This is the book for you.
What's the meaning of a bee's waggle dance? Who thought budgie smugglers into being?
And why is cancer so damn hard to cure?
In these lively and surprising Explainers, writers from Australia's leading mastheads reveal the mysterious workings of the world, from outer space and the deep sea to our own backyards.
Navigate life's quirks and curiosities with journalists from these newsrooms-across health, science, culture and human behaviour as they ask some of the deeper questions in life. Does handwriting still matter? What are rogue waves? And how do you make the right decisions?
Who knows? But at least you can have a laugh finding out.
The curious reader will enjoy the variety of subjects in this book. Queueing for brunch is mentioned and also the known history of the queue which is thousands of years old!
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Reading the Seasons: books holding life and friendship together
By Germaine Leece & Sonya Tsakalakis
It's the perfect time of the year to reflect on relationships and books read or to embrace new books such as 'Reading the Seasons' which not only offers an entryway to new titles but affirms the power of books to console, heal and hold us together as friends and as individuals.
Reading the Seasons charts the evolution of a friendship through candid letters between bibliotherapists Germaine Leece and Sonya Tsakalakis.
Ignited by a shared love of reading, of finding a book for every occasion, every emotion – both for themselves and for their clients – their conversations soon confront life’s ups and downs.
The authors they reach for range from Stephen King to Javier Marias, Helen Garner to Maggie O’Farrell, as they reflect upon loss, change, parenting, careers, simple pleasures, travel, successes, fears and uncertainty.
This is a warm-hearted and beautiful celebration of reading and all it achieves in our lives.
Thank you for following Gordy’s Desk, it has been fun for me and a pleasure to share these titles with you, I hope you have enjoyed the variety of recommendations and tried some new books.
The very best wishes from Gordy’s Desk for a fulfilling new reading year in 2025!
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