By Sarah Ernestine, Bayley Cornfield, Meg Jones and Genevieve Bernard
Small Bodies of Water by Nina Mingya Powles
August 5, Canongate Books
“Where is the place your body is anchored? Which body of water is yours? Is it that I’ve anchored myself in too many places at once, or nowhere at all? The answer lies somewhere between.”
From the author of Tiny Moons and Magnolia comes an elegant and evocative collection of essays about home, family, food and the “bodies of water that separate and connect us”. Taking the reader from Borneo, where she first learned to swim, to London, New Zealand and beyond, Nina Mingya Powles crosses pools, ponds and oceans to explore what it truly means to ‘belong’ somewhere. Weaving together stories about her own life with musings on nature and natural disasters, migration, and more, Powles’s latest work is a testament to her versatility as a nonfiction writer.
- Bayley
A Slow Burning Fire by Paula Hawkins
August 31, Doubleday
A Slow Burning Fire is an explosive and tense thriller from the bestselling author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water. Three women. One murder. A gripping exploration of the lengths people are willing to go to uncover the truth. Laura knows how others perceive her: outsider, damaged, threatening, dangerous. But she is more than what she seems. Miriam understands; she too knows that not everything is as it seems at first glance. She does not assume Laura’s guilt, despite her bloodied clothing at the scene of the crime. Carla’s nephew is dead. Overwhelming grief clouds her vision and her judgement. Trust is the furthest thought from her mind. Carla wants truth, justice and then: peace. She’s willing to do anything to get it. Paula Hawkins chronicles the slow, unfurling tragedy and betrayal of the three women whose lives have been tightly bound together, regardless of their innocence. Or guilt.
- Meg
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
August 3, Delacorte Press
The buzz is building around the newest novel by American author Victoria Lee, author of the Feverwake duology. Her new book is titled A Lesson in Vengeance and follows the story of Felicity, a boarding school student coming to terms with the tragic loss of her girlfriend and fellow student. Dalloway School, nestled in the Catskill Mountains of New York, is known for the historic campus and mysterious grounds which are said to be haunted by the spirits of five girls. No explanation was ever given for the sequential deaths of the five students now haunting the school. When a new student, Ellis, comes to Dalloway, she works with Felicity to begin to research the school’s dark past and unravel its secrets. When history repeats itself, who will be there to help the students of Dalloway? This haunting new LGBTQ+ novel is riddled with mystery, romance and witchcraft. A Lesson in Vengeance is the perfect new read for fans of Young Adult novels and the dark academia genre.
-Sarah
Glittering a Turd: How surviving the unsurvivable taught me to live by Kris Hallenga
August 19, Unbound
This beautifully honest book is a story of resilience and hope. It is bold, insightful and an unafraid reminder to us to seize life and live each day we are gifted. Kris was your typical twenty-something: travelling, falling in love and busy making plans for the future. Then in one single moment her life changed forever. She discovered a lump in her breast; not only was she told that it was cancer, but that it was incurable. Hallenga’s life would never be the same, but she uses her diagnosis as a force for good, leading her to live a life she never thought she would be able to have after her diagnosis; one that was happy and fulfilling. This book is so much more than a cancer memoir; Hallenga’s truly inspirational story, from founding the charity Coppafeel, to camping at festivals, shows how Kris not only survives but thrives. It is a story of how one diagnosis compelled one woman to discover how to really live life more vividly and glitter even when life is a turd.
- Genevieve
The Husbands by Chandler Baker
August 3, Little, Brown
This searing novel from New York Times bestselling author is one to add to your August reading list. Nora is frustrated. She has started to notice that maybe ‘having it all’ as a woman comes with a price, one that her husband does not have to pay. When she and her husband Hayden find themselves looking for a new house, Nora’s eyes are opened as she finds herself in an affluent suburban neighbourhood where the wives don’t make the sacrifices she feels so suffocated by. A neighbourhood where the women are in charge. But when things take a murderous turn and Nora finds herself embroiled in a wrongful death case. She begins to suspect that there is more to the ‘perfect’ neighbourhood, a dark secret that some of her new friends will do anything to protect.
- Genevieve