This is a selection of books one, many or all of us at VIVA have read and absolutely love. We change this list often as we will read a new book and simply have to have it on our list.
| Author: | Sally Rooney |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
A universal story of love, friendship, and growing up.
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He's popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mot... read more
| Author: | Trent Dalton |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
| Awards: | Longlisted Miles Franklin 2019 Winner ABIA Book of the Year 2019 Winner ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2019 Winner Matt Richell New Writer of the Year 2019 Winner Audio Book of the Year 2019 Winner UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing - NSW Premier's Awards 2019 Winner Debut Fiction Australian Indie Awards 2019 Winner Book of the Year Australian Indie Awards 2019 |
An utterly wonderful debut novel of love, crime, magic, fate and a boy's coming of age, set in 1980s Australia and infused with the originality, charm, patho... read more
| Author: | Kamila Shamsie |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
| Awards: | WINNER FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018 LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 |
"Ingenious... Builds to one of the most memorable final scenes I've read in a novel this century." --The New York Times WINNER OF THE 2018 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family drive... read more
| Author: | Tim Winton |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
| Awards: | Shortlisted ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2019 Longlisted Indie Book Awards Fiction 2019 Shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Fiction 2018 Shortlisted NSW Premiere's Award Fiction 2019 |
In one terrible moment Jaxie Clackton's life is stripped to little more than what he can carry and how he can keep himself alive. There's just one person left in the world who understands him an... read more
| Author: | Taylor Jenkins Reid |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
| Reading Level: | 1 Fiction |
A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of a fictional iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup.
"I devoured Daisy Jones & The Six in a day, falling head over heels for it. Daisy and the... read more
| Author: | Jacqueline Hammar |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
Daughter of the Territory is the amazing life story of Jacqueline Hammar. Born in Darwin in 1929, Jacqueline's childhood was spent in a succession of bush towns before she was sent to school in Darwin. With the outbreak of World War II, she moved to Brisbane to finish h... read more
| Author: | Charlotte McConaghy |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
| Series: | The Chronicles of Kaya |
The people of Kaya die in pairs. When one lover dies, the other does too. So it has been for thousands of years - until Ava. For although her bondmate, Avery, has been murdered and Ava's soul has been torn in two, she is the only one who has ever been strong enough to cling to life. Vowing... read more
| Author: | Martha Hall Kelly |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this runaway international bestseller reveals the power of unsung women to change history in their quest for love, freedom and second chances. New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at t... read more
| Author: | Libby Page |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
Meet Rosemary, 86, and Kate, 26: dreamers, campaigners, outdoor swimmers...
Rosemary has lived in Brixton all her life, but everything she knows is changing. Only the local lido, where she swims every day, remains a constant reminder of... read more
| Author: | Haruki Murakami |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
| Reading Level: | very good |
Reviewed by Pascale, one of our longstanding casual staff members and a creative writing major. Murakami’s new novel Killing Commendatore is the Kyoto-born author at his whimsical best. Compelling and enigmatic, it follows a Japanese portrait painter and the ... read more
| Author: | Georgia Blain |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
| Reading Level: | General Adult |
| Awards: | Winner of Victorian Premier's Literary Award - Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction 2017 and Queensland Literary Awards: University of Queensland Fiction Book Award 2016. |
Outside, the rain continues unceasing; silver sheets sluicing down, the trees and shrubs soaking and bedraggled, the earth sodden, puddles overflowing, torrents coursing onwards, as the darkness slowly softens with the dawn.
Ester is a family therapist with an app... read more
| Author: | Vicki Laveau-Harvie |
| Category: |
BOOKS WE LOVE |
Dark, sharp, blackly funny and powerful, this is memoir, wielded as weapon. Telling the story of a splintered family, a mother who is unlike any other, and her daughters who have no choice but to come to the rescue, The Erratics has the tightly compressed energy o... read more
