Join The Australian Women’s Weekly Book Club!
We dig through the crop of new and exciting tales from authors at home and abroad to recommend you the very best in reading material.
Each month we publish our pick of the best books to dive into, as well as our Great Reads – the best of the best!
Plus, we’d love to hear from our bookworm readers!
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Keep on scrolling to see our top book picks for July.
Our Great Read
Our Great Read for July: Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
Literary fiction
As America stumbles into election season, it’s tempting to recall what could have been if Hillary Clinton had made it to the White House instead of Donald Trump.
This extraordinary novel is a piece of fantasy fiction, conjuring a world of what ifs. What if Hillary had rejected Bill Clinton’s marriage proposal?
What if she had pursued her own political dreams earlier and managed to run for president unencumbered by the judgements attached to her husband’s devastating fall from grace? What if Hillary had been able to fly?
The Things She Owned
The Things She Owned by Katherine Tamiko Arguile
Family drama
A dazzling debut with picture perfect moments of the life of London chef Erika, 30, and her Japan childhood with glamorous but distant “Jackie-O” style mother Michiko.
It’s 2003 and Erika awaits cousin Kei to visit the grave of her hard-partying mother who died 12 years previously.
Each chapter is introduced with an item that Erika inherits from her, including a casket of Michiko’s cremated bones still uninterred in her daughter’s flat.
We see the unbearable horrors of war, deprivation and its desolate effect on love – but how retracing footsteps of forebears can help purge pain and let go.
Old Enough to Save the Planet
Old Enough to Save the Planet by Loll Kirby
Kids nonfiction
Meet 12 real-life children from around the world – all passionate activists.
Aussie Shalise protects the ocean by clearing pollution from the shore; Indian Himangi campaigns against traffic pollution; Amy and Ella, sisters from the UK, are committed to eradicating single-use plastic through their charity Kids against Plastic; and Vincent from France created a community garden that reduces food waste.
They are illustrated in spectacular drawings in their classrooms, jungles and villages, and there are 10 steps as to how you can join the junior change-makers.
Castaway
Castaway by Robert Macklin
True story
Incredible tale of a 14-year-old French cabin boy, abandoned by his captain and crew following the floundering of the Saint Paul barque in fog during his watch, on the far north coast of Queensland in 1858.
Discovered by Aboriginals from the Uutaalnganu Night Island clan, Narcisse Pelletier is renamed Amglo and over 17 years becomes fluent in tribal language, fathers a son, Markuntha, then later marries another girl, Mitha, and fathers a daughter, Chachi.
But when he is “rescued” – captured – and returned to France after 17 years, the 31-year-old cannot readjust.
The Silent Wife
The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
Thriller
As this pacey thriller opens we’re in Atlanta, Georgia, where a woman on a dawn run is brutally attacked in
a wood, a hammer lodged in her skull.
It’s an arresting start to Slaughter’s 10th crime thriller with Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent, who comes together with another of the author’s top characters – from her ‘Grant County’ series – medical examiner Sara Linton.
He says there are links with the new woodland murder and the one he was accused of eight years before. If he’s right, the killer is still at large.
*Confessions of a Forty-Something
Confessions of a Forty-Something by Alexandra Potter
Romance
The pressures of hitting 40 in an Instagram-perfect world ring clangingly true in this uplifting romcom.
When her business, romance and California life fall apart, Nell Stevens heads back to London to start again, but everyone she knows has moved on.
Friends are married, rents are exorbitant and her life feels a total mess when compared to those around her. But then she strikes up an unlikely friendship with Cricket, an octogenarian widow who refuses to give in to grief.
Rest and Be Thankful
Rest and Be Thankful by Emma Glass
Lyrical
A timely novel about the shifting world of exhausted nurse Laura, who learns to love the early hours of the morning as it is the only daylight she will see for the next 12 hours.
Author Emma Glass is a paediatric nurse, and she displays a courage to stare deep into the unsettling reality of life. She tries to love London but London doesn’t love itself.
“I turn my head … and see her mother. She has one hand clawing at her eyes … A nurse is behind her, one hand on her shoulder, another ready to catch her. A position we have all been taught.”
The Art of Cake
The Art of Cake by Alice Oehr
Cookery
This colourful hardback from Melbourne artist Alice Oehr isn’t about baking cakes, it’s a homage to the most iconic creations from around the world.
Candy-coloured illustrations offer a nod to the artistry of the professional patissier, and the text explains the origins of each sweet treat and gives tips on baking.
