Julie

Favourite genre: Literary Fiction

Get to know more about Julie and her taste in books below:

More about me

1. A book you didn't think you were going to like as much as you did?

The Woman in The Library by Sulari Gentill. I'm not usually drawn to crime thrillers but I loved the twisty, turny, tongue-in-cheek adventure Sulari took me on.

2. A favourite book of 2022:

Spring Cannot Be Cancelled by David Hockney and Martin Gayford

3. Your favourite book of all time:

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

4. A book that changed your life:

The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

5. A book that ruined you:

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis; the rats!!

6. A book with the best first line or quote:

Burnt Coat by Sarah Hall has the best first AND last lines!

"Those who tell stories survive."

"A life is a bead of water on the black surface, so frail, so strong, it's world incredibly held."

Reading goals?

Never stop!!

TBR (want to read pile):

Cold Enough For Snow, Jessica Au

The inaugural winner of The Novel Prize, an international biennial award established by Giramondo (Australia), Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) and New Directions (USA). Cold Enough for Snow was unanimously chosen from over 1500 entries.

A novel about the relationship between life and art, and between language and the inner world – how difficult it is to speak truly, to know and be known by another, and how much power and friction lies in the unsaid, especially between a mother and daughter.

A young woman has arranged a holiday with her mother in Japan. They travel by train, visit galleries and churches chosen for their art and architecture, eat together in small cafés and restaurants and walk along the canals at night, on guard against the autumn rain and the prospect of snow. All the while, they talk, or seem to talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes and objects; about the mother’s family in Hong Kong, and the daughter’s own formative experiences. But uncertainties abound. How much is spoken between them, how much is thought but unspoken?

Cold Enough for Snow is a reckoning and an elegy: with extraordinary skill, Au creates an enveloping atmosphere that expresses both the tenderness between mother and daughter, and the distance between them.

'So calm and clear and deep, I wished it would flow on forever.' — Helen Garner

'Rarely have I been so moved, reading a book: I love the quiet beauty of Cold Enough for Snow and how, within its calm simplicity, Jessica Au camouflages incredible power.' — Edouard Louis

'The quiet intimacy of Jessica Au’s novella is beautifully affecting, the unnamed narrator’s precise travelogue triggering reflections on home, childhood and relationships...It is melancholic and wistful, but Au finds grace and succour in the small act of observing people, places and art.' — The Guardian

'Au’s prose is elegant and measured. In descriptions of bracing clarity she evokes ‘shaking delicate impressions’ of worlds within worlds that are symbolic of the parts of ourselves we keep hidden and those we choose to lay bare. Put simply, this novel is an intricate and multi-layered work of art — a complex and profound meditation on identity, familial bonds and our inability to fully understand ourselves, those we love and the world around us.' — Jacqui Davies, Books+Publishing

'Cold Enough for Snow is a sensory contemplation of knowledge, performativity, and the integral role of the present in shaping one’s past. This book will resonate with solitary bonsai, daughters of mothers, and humans floating backwards through the stories of their lives.' — ArtsHub

Lola In The Mirror, Trent Dalton

Bighearted, gritty, magical and moving, Lola in the Mirror is the irresistible new novel from international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies, Trent Dalton.

SHORTLISTED FOR 2023 DYMOCKS BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2024 INDIE BOOK AWARDS, 2024 AUSTRALIAN BOOK DESIGN AWARDS BEST DESIGNED COMMERCIAL FICTION COVER AND THE 2024 ABIA LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKPEOPLE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Unpredictable, fantastic ... It takes a charged narrative, like Dickens achieves, and as Dalton does too, to reach the heart and the brain - writing that is able to carry both stories, the individual and the political/personal ... To tell you more would spoil this complicated and surprising story. You should read it.' Sydney Morning Herald

'Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what's my future? What's my past?'

A girl and her mother have been on the run for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside a van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River.

The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But the girl has a dream. A vision of a life as an artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen 'Lady' Flora Box. A life of love with the boy who's waiting for her on the bridge that stretches across a flooding, deadly river. A life beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there's only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can ever do. She must look in the mirror.

From international bestselling author Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror is a big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror: all our past, all our present, and all our possible futures.

'Trent Dalton's third novel reminds me of the 1980s advertising slogan for the author's home state of Queensland: Beautiful one day, perfect the next ... Lola in the Mirror is a bold, big-hearted, hopeful, humorous, dark, reflective, truthful, superbly written novel that confirms Dalton's place in all the shimmering skies (to borrow the title of his second novel) of Australian literature. He is not a rising star but a star full stop.' The Australian

'Wonderful ... An original, heart-thumping novel ... you are right there with the protagonists, feeling and believing every word and every raindrop. It is the type of novel you read filled with pure hope and sorrow for the characters. You want to believe that everything is going to work out just fine, and that there will be dancing, and art, and delight. You won't know until the end, and by that time you, too, are running through the streets, turning the pages, and trusting that love wins.' Readings

North Woods, Daniel Mason

'Truly outstanding' Mail on Sunday
'This is a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic . . . The only constants are the land and Mason's genius' Washington Post
'Daniel Mason's latest novel is one of those rare books that truly deserves the description "spellbinding" ' Observer
'A tapestry at once intimate and epic' TLS
'Utterly beguiling' Scotsman
'Extraordinary characters . . . a tour de force' Independent, Best Books for Autumn
'Epic . . . weaves a Cloud Atlas-style narrative of humanity under pressure and nature under threat' Guardian, 2023's Biggest Books
FOUR CENTURIES. A SINGLE HOUSE DEEP IN THE WOODS OF NEW ENGLAND.
A young Puritan couple on the run. An English soldier with a fantastic vision. Inseparable twin sisters. A lovelorn painter and a lusty beetle. A desperate mother and her haunted son. A ruthless con man and a stalking panther. Buried secrets. Madness, dreams and hope.
All are connected. The dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
Exhilarating, daring and playful, NORTH WOODS will change the way you see the world.
'A monumental achievement . . . I loved it' Maggie O'Farrell
'Ambitious, alive, and lush with generosity . . . an immersive sprint through time' Tess Gunty

Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan

'Exquisite.' Damon Galgut
'Masterly.' The Times

'Miraculous.' Herald

'Astonishing.' Colm Toibin

'Stunning.' Sunday Independent

'Absolutely beautiful.' Douglas Stuart

A Book of the Year in The Times and The New Statesman

It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up toChristmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.

'A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.' The Times

'[A] snowglobe of a story that fits a whole bustling, striving, yearning world into 114 finely wrought pages.' Sunday Times

'Powerful and affecting and very timely . . . deeply moving.' Hilary Mantel

'Stunning . . . A haunting, hopeful masterpiece.' Sinead Gleeson

'Remarkable . . . Truly exquisite.' Daily Telegraph

'A restrained and intensely moral book, full of hope and love.' Observer

'Marvellous - exact and icy and loving all at once.' Sarah Moss

The Librarianist, Patrick deWitt

From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes a novel about an ordinary man who thought life’s surprises were behind him – until a chance encounter changes everything

Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.

Behind Bob Comet’s straight man facade is the story of an unhappy child’s runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian’s vocation, and the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Comet’s experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsized players to welcome onto the stage of his life.

With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert’s condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity.

The Satsuma Complex, Bob Mortimer

My name is Gary. I’m a thirty-year-old legal assistant with a firm of solicitors in London. To describe me as anonymous would be unfair but to notice me other than in passing would be a rarity. I did make a good connection with a girl, but that blew up in my face and smacked my arse with a fish slice.

Gary Thorn goes for a pint with a work acquaintance called Brendan. When Brendan leaves early, Gary meets a girl in the pub. He doesn’t catch her name, but falls for her anyway. When she suddenly disappears without saying goodbye, all Gary has to remember her by is the book she was reading: The Satsuma Complex. But when Brendan goes missing, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Satsuma to get some answers.

And so begins Gary’s quest, through the estates and pie shops of South London, to finally bring some love and excitement into his unremarkable life…

A page-turning story with a cast of unforgettable characters, The Satsuma Complex is the brilliantly funny first novel by bestselling author and comedian Bob Mortimer.

The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff

Set in the 1600s, beginning with a voyage across the Atlantic, this is Lauren Groff's inventive novel The Vaster Wilds

FROM THE THREE-TIME NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FATES AND FURIES AND MATRIX

Part of a loose trilogy based on the end of empire, The Vaster Wilds is the story of a young girl who is servant to a minister and his young mistress, and in charge of their young daughter Bess. On an epic voyage across the Atlantic, ship-wrecked, far from home and fighting for survival, the protagonist of Lauren Groff's extraordinary new novel must endure but also find meaning in the journey.

PRAISE FOR MATRIX-

'Lush, gripping and ferocious' MADELINE MILLER

'An audacious piece of storytelling, full of passion, wisdom and magic' SARAH WATERS

'A gorgeous, sensual, addictive read' SARA COLLINS

Currently Reading:

The Golem And The Jinni

By Helene Wecker

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.

Struggling to make their way in 1899 New York, the Golem and the Jinni try to fit in with their immigrant neighbors while masking their true selves. Meeting by chance, they become unlikely friends whose tenuous attachment challenges their opposing natures, until the night a terrifying incident drives them back into their separate worlds. But a powerful menace will soon bring the Golem and the Jinni together again, threatening their existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.

Marvelous and compulsively readable, The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of folk mythology, historical fiction, and magical fable into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale.

Prima Facie

By Suzie Miller

Tessa is a thoroughbred. A young, brilliant barrister from a working-class background now at the top of her game: defending, cross-examining and lighting up the shadows of doubt in any case. The law is a game and she is its most talented player.

One sickening night, though, Tessa finds herself in a position countless women - one in three - have been in before her. And she's faced with a gut-wrenching, life-changing decision. Will she take the stand to testify about her rape, with the full awareness that the system has not been built to protect her?

Drawn from the internationally acclaimed play, Prima Facie is a propulsive, raw look at the price victims pay for speaking out and the system that sets them up to fail. With breakneck prose and a devastating emotional intensity, this is a novel for our times, by one of Australia's most impressive writers.

'A fantastic read, page-turning and thought-provoking. The kind of story you can't stop thinking about. I loved it.' JANE HARPER

Praise for Prima Facie

'Not many books can immediately draw you in, keep you up all night, and break your heart over and over again. But still you can't put it down. Can't look away. There are not enough superlatives for Suzie Miller's incendiary novel. Just read it.' Heather Rose

'Suzie Miller has created a relatable, seminal work in our understanding of sexual abuse. Brilliant!' Magda Szubanski

'Enthralling and sharp-witted - Prima Facie takes an unflinching look inside a legal system that is more punishing to the victims of sexual assault than it is to the assailants. A scathing and true look at how the legal system can retraumatise victims. Highly recommended.' Karin Slaughter

'As defamation laws are weaponised against sexual assault victims in an already hostile legal environment, this timely and deeply moving novel could not be more important. A defence barrister learns in the absolute worst way what it is like to be raped not once, but twice, the second time by her own profession.' Jane Caro

'Miller's star shines as brightly as a novelist as it does as a playwright. Prima Facie the novel gives us what novels
do: the intimacy of interior life. A great read.' Anna Funder

'Miller's novel is searing, vindicating and absolutely necessary both in the injustices it names and the emotions it evokes. I am grateful to her for writing it.' Sarah Krasnostein

'Brilliant concept. Convincing, worthy, a must read.' Claudia Karvan

'Bold, fearless, heartbreakingly timeless. Written with skill, humour, despair and hope, Prima Facie is a deeply rewarding, absolute must read.' Chris Whitaker