The Australian Women’s Weekly Book Club picks for September

Our Great Read for September:

The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy

Literary fiction

The narrator of this mesmerising tale of love, loss and redemption, set in a time when wildlife is becoming extinct, is like a wild creature herself, constantly searching for the nest where she will find her family.

Franny is a mix of strength and fragility, and her journey is as much about the birds as it is about running from a traumatic past.

Franny has always been a wanderer and her childhood sees her boomerang between Australia and Ireland. At university in Galway, she meets and marries ornithologist Niall.

But when their relationship hits trouble, Franny heads for Greenland and the terns Niall always longed to track.

There, she persuades a fishing boat captain to take her on board and as they journey south, Franny’s turbulent past spills out…

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Family secrets

This kooky, courageous novel from literary sensation Mieko Kawakami sold a quarter of a million copies in her native Japan.

Two sisters reunite in contemporary Tokyo, when elder Makiko, who works as a hostess back in Osaka, arrives with her 12-year-old daughter, Midoriko.

Makiko has come to Tokyo for breast enhancement surgery. Midoriko has not spoken to her mother for a month. We hear her voice via her diary, as the scared loner navigates puberty on her own.

Incredible journeys by David Barrie

Non-fiction

“The first question I want to address is: how do animals – including humans – find their way around? We are abandoning the basic navigational skills on which we have relied for so long.”

“We can now fix our position at the press of a button,” laments former ferry deckhand, now award-winning author, sailor and cutting-edge navigator David Barrie.

Barrie is the great-great-nephew of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie and his gift for storytelling is equally impressive.

Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan

Forbidden love

Ana and Connor have been sneaking around in hotel rooms for three years, building a hot-house affair alongside their marriages.

But then Connor dies, and Ana hears the news from his wife, who is calling Ana in her capacity as family solicitor.

From here, the revelations jump around, filling in the backstory and Ana’s need to hang on to something while unable to say anything.

Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight

Thriller

Spellbinding novel about Columbia PhD student Nell, a botanist continuing the studies of a graduate who died while researching an antidote to poisonous plants.

Nell – born in Kansas, where “luxury was a tuna casserole” – tries to imagine what happened to Rachel’s organs as the toxins spread.

Class mentor, elitist Joan, is worshipped by Nell. “For years I’ve been your smaller self,” Nell says as she floats outside her door.

Instead, Joan takes up with Nell’s ex, Tom, as couples plant themselves in each other’s beds.

Prepare for a burningly brilliant pleasure house of obsession, ordeal, disappointment, betrayal and regret.

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

Crime fiction

Protagonist Rachel Krall produces true crime podcasts. Rachel’s first two seasons reopened cold cases, but now she’s reporting on the jury trial of an Olympic swimmer accused of rape.

At the same time, a woman named Hannah leaves a note on Rachel’s car, asking for her help with the rape and drowning of her sister 25 years earlier, which she claims was murder.

Rachel is intrigued, especially when Hannah says that her sister’s killer will be in the courtroom of the current trial.

Resident Dog by Nicole England

Table book

If you’ve ever wondered if a dog will make your house a home, this stunning book of photographs heralds

a resounding yes.

Melbourne-based interiors photographer Nicole England presents 25 houses with the dogs who live there.

From spoodle Charlie to lagotto ramagnolos Mars and Truffle, and bull-mastiff kelpie Bergie, these pooches bring warmth and character to their exquisitely designed domains.

Finding Our Heart by Thomas Mayor

Children

Beautifully illustrated by Blak Douglas, this is a follow-up to Mayor’s Finding the Heart of the Nation about the Uluru Statement.

Warm, joy-filled and packed with information – including a detailed AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia – the colours of Country soothe and envelop Mayor’s rich words.