Janice
Meet the founder of Moruya Books.​ Get to know more about Janice and her taste in books.
More about me
Who are your auto-buy (you'll buy absolutely anything they write, even their shopping list) authors?
Sara Winman, Chris Hammer, Inga Simpson and Kate Morton
What's your favourite genre/s?
Nature writing and Historical books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Do you judge a book by its cover?
Yes, at the start, but...
What's your most anticipate release/s of 2024?
Surprise me. I'll know when I see it.
How do you organise your personal bookshelves?
I have my nature and environmental books on one bookcase, then my non-fiction and fiction on another two bookcases. All my children's books and poetry are on my fourth bookcase and are all organised by height.
What books are high on your TBR (to be read pile) this year?
Demon Copperhead, Prophet Song and Unravelling the Silk Road.
But the list just keeps growing!
Favourite book quote:
"I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially."
E.B.White
Currently Reading:
Mona Of The Manor
By Armistead Maupin
​
The tenth novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin's best-selling San Francisco saga.
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When Mona Ramsey married Lord Teddy Roughton to secure his visa-allowing him to remain in San Francisco to fulfil his wildest dreams-she never imagined she would, by age 48, be the sole owner of Easley House, a romantic country manor in the UK. Now, with her adopted son, Wilfred, Mona has opened Easley's doors to paying guests to keep her inherited English manor afloat.
As they welcome a married American couple to Easley, Mona and Wilfred discover their new guests' terrible secret. Instead of focussing on the imminent arrival of old friend Michael Tolliver and matriarch Anna Madrigal, Mona will need to use her considerable charm, willpower and wiles to set things right before Easley's historic Midsummer ceremony.
Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads the eccentric tenants of Barbary Lane through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences in 1980s San Francisco and beyond. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.
A few favourites:
Tom Edwards is dying, and cranky. He's made his peace with the dying part. But he'd bet his property - the whole ten thousand acres of it - that there'd be no wailing at his funeral. His kids wouldn't be able to chop down a tree, let alone build a coffin to bury him in.
Then Tom has an idea ...
Christine is furious, David ashen-faced, and Sophie distracted. Only Jenny listens carefully as Vince Barton, of Barton & Sons, reads their father's will. Either they build his coffin - in four days - or they lose their inheritance. All of it.
A perceptive and unforgettable debut novel, The Deed explores the messy, sometimes volatile, complications that only the best and worst of family can bring. Sometimes greed can be good.
'Splendidly told through a rich layering of characterisation . . . Funny, heartfelt and unforgettable' SYDNEY ARTS GUIDE
'From its richly evoked rural landscape to its complex, loveable characters, The Deed is a dazzling debut full of humour and heart about one man's legacy, four fractious siblings and all that can
divide or unite a family. This is a wonderful, hugely entertaining,
thoroughly Australian novel from an exciting new talent.' HANNAH RICHELL, bestselling author and Richell Prize judge
Psychiatry registrar Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.
Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, as she and her fellow trainees deal with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has a life-threatening eating disorder; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.
With intelligence, frankness and humour, eminent psychiatrist Anne Buist tells it like it is, while co-writer Graeme Simsion brings the light touch that made The Rosie Project an international bestseller and a respected contribution to the autism conversation.
'A masterfully told, character-driven novel that will have you laughing and crying in equal measures' THE AUSTRALIAN
'A deeply empathetic, humanising portrait of a mental health facility, and the souls that pass through it: both to provide help and receive it' THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY
'Highly engaging. Brings alive the frontline of mental health care' PROFESSOR PATRICK MCGORRY AO, AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR 2010
'Embraces a standout cast of characters - patients, clinicians and family members are so beautifully individuated and the story overflows with compassion, insight and humour. Entertaining, enlightening, it embraces the complexity of what it means to be human' MEREDITH JAFFE
'A remarkable expose about mental illness and its treatment . . . told with an engaging, light touch reminiscent of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Simsion's The Rosie Project. The Glass House is a timely, innovative book' BOOKS + PUBLISHING
'Gripping, rich and insightful, and brimming with compassion. Shines a light on the grit and dedication of frontline workers, while giving a voice to everyone impacted by mental illness' ARIANE BEESTON, author of Because I'm Not Myself, You See
'A great read that combines laugh-out-loud moments with those that bring tears to your eyes. Anne Buist skilfully writes from her own experiences and co-author Graeme Simsion adds his inimitable Rosie Project style. An honest, sensitive look into mental health car
Saba is just a child when he flees his home in Georgia with his older brother, Sandro, and father, Irakli, for asylum in the UK after Russia’s occupation of South Ossetia. Two decades later, all three men are struggling to make peace with the past, haunted by the places and people they left behind.
When Irakli decides to return to Georgia, pulled back by memories of a lost wife and a decaying but still beautiful homeland, Saba and Sandro wait eagerly for news. But within weeks of his arrival, Irakli disappears, and the final email they receive from him causes a mystery to unfold before them: ‘My boys, I did something I can’t undo. I need to get away from here before those people catch me. Maybe in the mountains I’ll be safe. I left a trail I can’t erase. Do not follow it.'
In a journey that will lead him to the very heart of a conflict that has marred generations and fractured his own family, Saba must retrace his father's footsteps to discover what remains of their homeland and its people. By turns savage and tender, compassionate and harrowing, Hard by a Great Forest is a powerful and ultimately hopeful novel about the individual and collective trauma of war, and the indomitable spirit of a people determined not only to survive, but to remember those who did not.
'Sidelines is a riveting novel. It takes our jittery, intensely competitive era and unpicks our self-deceptions until they bleed.' - Jane Caro, bestselling author of The Mother
When a violent brawl erupts at a suburban junior soccer game, some onlookers are shocked. But others saw it coming. Rivalry, parental pressure, coaching bias, inequity, and many other factors have played a part in turning Saturday mornings into a pressure cooker.
Thirteen-year-old Audrey is a talented young football player. But does she want to play for Australia or does she just want to please her father, Ben, whose own thwarted sporting career looms large in his ambitions for his daughter? Audrey's mother, Jonica, doesn't know whether to be more concerned about her anxious daughter, her overbearing husband, or the only other girl on the team, Katerina, who is causing trouble on and off the field. And Katerina's mother, Carmen, is so busy looking for opportunities to give Katerina more game time that she fails to notice what is really capturing her daughter's attention. When Griffin, a naturally gifted player with spectacular skills, arrives, the tension within the team reaches boiling point. But who is going to crack first - the parents or the players?
Flo is sick of Tokyo. She is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up, and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a drunken passenger on the Tokyo Subway. She starts to read...
SOUND OF WATER
Kyo has failed his university entrance exams, split up with his girlfriend and is sent by his busy mother to a cram school in Onomichi, a small coastal town where he will stay with his grandmother, Ayako. Ayako is a fierce and strict old lady, who runs a coffee shop in town, is missing fingers, and won't talk about the past, or particularly what Kyo really wants to know- who his father was, and why he died by suicide when Kyo was only two. Following a year in Kyo and Ayako's lives, through the changing seasons in rural Japan, Sound of Water is an intergenerational story of family, relationships, creativity and how we overcome and live with failure in life.
...quickly, Flo realises that she needs to venture outside the pages of the book to track down its elusive author. And, as her two protagonists reveal themselves to have more in common with her life than first meets the eye, the lines between text and translator converge. Her journey is just beginning.
Yuwonderie's seven founding families have lorded it over their district for a century, growing ever more rich and powerful.
But now-in startling circumstances-one of their own is found dead in a ditch and homicide detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are sent to investigate.
Could the murder be connected to the execution of the victim's friend thirty years ago-another member of The Seven-or even the long-forgotten story of a servant girl on the brink of the Great War?
What are the secrets The Seven are so desperate to keep hidden?
With the killer still on the loose, and events spiralling out of control, the closer Ivan and Nell get to discovering the truth, the more dangerous their investigation becomes. Can they crack the case before more people die?
The Seven is a compelling thriller filled with intrigue, emotional depth and an evocative sense of place-where nothing is ever quite what it seems. Chris Hammer, the acclaimed and bestselling author of the international bestsellers Scrublands, Treasure & Dirt and The Tilt can take his place among the world's finest crime writers.
Praise for Chris Hammer:
'Hammer has confirmed and underline his reputation as numbering among the very best novelists in detective fiction.' The Sydney Morning Herald
'Chris Hammer at the height of his powers ... absolutely not to be missed!' Hayley Scrivenor, author of Dirt Town on The Tilt
'A darkly simmering mystery, gorgeously told ... Utterly brilliant.' Dervla McTiernan, author of The Ruin and The Murder Rule
'It would be unfair to say Chris Hammer is at the top of the crime writing game. Chris Hammer IS the game. Full Tilt may be a better title, given the speed with which readers will devour Chris Hammer's exceptional novel.' Benjamin
Stevenson, author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
'Like everything Chris Hammer writes, The Tilt is a rich, complex thriller, packed with detail and intrigue. There's a reason why this guy is on my auto-read list!' Christian White, author of The Nowhere Child
'Chris Hammer is a great writer ... a leader in Australian noir.' Michael Connelly
'If you haven't read Hammer before, this is the perfect time to experience one of the best writers Australia has to offer. Rife with intrigue, murder, and small-town secrets, Treasure and Dirt is a spectacular thriller that delivers some unforgettable characters with twists and turns you won't see coming. Hammer has raised the bar for Australian crime, and this is a must-read.' Better Reading
'Chris Hammer has excelled himself with Trust...a thriller strong on character development, social insights, ethical issues and dramatic action.' The Weekend Australian
'The best Australian crime novel since Peter Temple's The Broken Shore.' The Times on Silver
'Shimmers with heat from the sun and from the passions that drive a tortured tale of blood and loss.' Val McDermid on Scrublands
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959:
At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most baffling murder investigations in the history of South Australia.
Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for nearly two decades, she now finds herself unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in hospital.
At Nora's house, Jess discovers a true-crime book chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event - a murder mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.
An epic story that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, how we protect the lies we tell, and what it means to come home. Above all, it is an intricate and spellbinding novel from one of the finest writers working today.
In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of going to Oxford University, but for most of her life she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has. She is extraordinary but vulnerable. Peggy needs to watch over her.
When refugees arrive from the devastated cities of Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and through the sisters' lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can use her intellect and not just her hands, but as war and illness reshape her world, it is love, and the responsibility that comes with it, that threaten to hold her back.
In this beautiful companion to the international bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams explores another little-known slice of history seen through women's eyes. Evocative, subversive and rich with unforgettable characters, The Bookbinder of Jericho is a story about knowledge who gets to make it, who gets to access it, and what is lost when it is withheld.
THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
'Sparky, rip-roaring, funny, with big-hearted fully formed, loveable characters' SUNDAY TIMES
'The most charming, life-enhancing novel I've read in ages. Strongly recommend' INDIA KNIGHT
'Laugh-out-loud funny and brimming with life, generosity and courage' RACHEL JOYCE
'A novel that sparks joy with every page' ELIZABETH DAY
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Your ability to change everything - including yourself - starts here
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.
But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one- Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with - of all things - her mind. True chemistry results.
Like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking ('combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride') proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.
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SOON TO BE A MAJOR APPLE TV SERIAL, STARRING BRIE LARSON
'I loved Lessons in Chemistry and am devastated to have finished it!' NIGELLA LAWSON
'Elizabeth Zott is an iconic heroine - a feminist who refuses to be quashed, a mother who believes that her child is a person to behold, rather than to mould, and who will leave you, and the lens through which you see the world, quite changed' PANDORA SYKES
'It's the world versus Elizabeth Zott, and I had no trouble choosing a side. A page-turning and highly satisfying tale- zippy, zesty, and Zotty' MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD, author of GREAT CIRCLE
THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, JULY 2023
'A superlative piece of crime fiction' SUNDAY TIMES
'There can be no denying [Galbraith's] considerable talents as a crime writer' GUARDIAN
'Fans will be as entranced as ever' DAILY MAIL
When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn't know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie's true identity.
Robin decides that the agency can't help with this - and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.
Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie's true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits - and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways . . .
A gripping, fiendishly clever mystery, The Ink Black Heart is a true tour-de-force.
On a hot morning in 1991 in the regional town of Clarke, Barney Clarke (no relation) is woken by the unexpected arrival of many policemen: they are going to search his backyard for the body of a missing woman.
Next door, Leonie Wallace and little Joe watch the police cars through their kitchen window. Leonie has been waiting for this day for six years. She is certain that her friend - Ginny Lawson - is buried in that backyard under a slab of suspicious concrete.
But the fate of Ginny Lawson is not the only mystery in Clarke. Barney lives alone in a rented house with a ring on his finger, but where is Barney's wife? Leonie lives with four-year-old Joe, but where is Joe's mother?
Clarke is a story of family and violence, of identity and longing, of unlikely connections and the comedy of everyday life. At its centre stands Leonie Wallace, a travel agent who has never travelled, a warm woman full of love and hope and grief, who must steer Joe safely through a very strange time indeed.
Praise for Holly Throsby:
'This is a masterful novel...readers who loved Goodwood will find even more to love here.' Books + Publishing on Cedar Valley
'So much truth, so much aching and pain by humour. What a wonderful book.' Lindy Morrison on Goodwood
'Stunning...a distinctly Australian coming-of-age story...balancing carefully evoked dread with genuine warmth, it's an assured and singular debut.' The Big Issue on Goodwood
'Sparkles with humanity and descriptive power...By the end of the beautiful and humble Cedar Valley, you may yearn for another dot on the map of Throsby's imagination.' - Sydney Morning Herald
'Throsby's rich characterisation leaves you feeling as though you'd made lifelong friends by the final page.' - Sunday Times on Cedar Valley
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2021
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME
A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK
‘Sheer joy' Graham Norton
‘Utterly beautiful … filled with hope’ Joanna Cannon, author of Three Things About Elsie
’A gorgeous, generous story of kind hearts and kindred spirits’ Daily Mirror
From the author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a big-hearted story of the families we forge and the friendships that make us.
1944, Italy. As bombs fall around them, two strangers meet in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa and share an extraordinary evening.
Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner a 64-year-old art historian living life on her own terms. She has come to salvage paintings from the wreckage of war and relive memories of her youth when her heart was stolen by an Italian maid in a particular room with a view. Ulysses’ chance encounter with Evelyn will transform his life – and all those who love him back home in London – forever.
Uplifting, sweeping and full of unforgettable characters, Still Life is a novel about beauty, love, family and friendship.
‘THE most beautiful book … it will stay with me a long time’ Sara Cox, BBC Two’s Between the Covers
‘Extraordinary . . . my book of the year’ Liz Nugent, author of Our Little Cruelties
‘Moving, wise, poetic and funny’ Daily Mail
‘Winman’s pages teem with boisterous, exuberant life’ Sunday Times