We are all so curious. Hungry for the truth. If only we could ask the questions we really want to ask of each other and get the real answers. Like how many times a month do you have sex? What prescription drugs are you on? Are you happy? Really happy? Happy enough?

For anybody who has ever wondered privately Is this all there is, Melanie Gideon's poignant, hilarious, exuberant meditation, The Slippery Year, chronicles a year in which she confronts both the fantasies of her receding youth and the realities of midlife with a husband, a child, and a dog (one of whom runs away). She reflects on the exigencies of domesticity, the need for a household catastrophe plan, the fainting spell occasioned by the departure of her nine-year-old son for camp, the mattress wars, and the carpool line. With tenderness, unsparing honesty, and uproarious wit, Gideon brings us back again and again to the sweetness of ordinary pleasures and to life's most enduring satisfactions. She captures perfectly that moment right before everything changes and the things we have loved forever begin to fall away for the first time.

The Slippery Year is the story of a woman's quest to reignite passion, beauty, and mystery and discover if happily ever after is a possibility after all.

Condition: Pre-loved, Good

Format: B, 256 pages, Paperback
Published: August 21, 2009 by Knopf Publishing Group
ISBN: 9781409114321 (ISBN10: 1409114325)

A modern serial killer - hunting an ancient secret.

A woman is left to die as the rebuilt Globe theatre burns. Another woman is drowned like Ophelia, skirts swirling in the water. A professor has his throat slashed open on the steps of Washington’s Capitol building.

A deadly serial killer is on the loose, modelling his murders on Shakespeare’s plays. But why is he killing? And how can he be stopped?

Condition: Pre-loved, Good

Format: C, 496 pages, Paperback
Published: January 10, 2008 by Sphere
ISBN: 9780751540352 (ISBN10: 0751540358)
Language: English

Have you ever imagined running away from your life?

Well Birdy Finch didn't just imagine it. She did it. Which might've been an error.

And the life she's run into? Her best friend, Heather's.

The only problem is, she hasn't told Heather.

Actually there are a few other problems...

Can Birdy carry off a summer pretending to be her best friend (who incidentally is a world-class wine expert)?

And can she stop herself from falling for the first man she's ever actually liked (but who thinks she's someone else)?

If you're looking to replace that Fleabag sized hole in your life, look no further: you'll laugh at her, you'll cringe with her but ultimately you'll fall in love with Birdy Finch. For fans of The Flat Share, this is a rom com like you've never seen before, The Summer Job is the hottest read this summer.

Condition: Pre-loved, Excellent

Format: C/Royal, Paperback
Published: April 1, 2021 by VIKIN
ISBN: 9780241990513 (ISBN10: 0241990513)
Language: English

This is the story of a young boy Wizard and a young girl Warrior who have been taught to hate each other like poison; and the thrilling tale of what happens when their two worlds collide.

Perfect for boys and girls who love fantasy adventure ...

Once there was Magic, and the Magic lived in the dark forests.

Wizard boy, Xar, should have come in to his magic by now, but he hasn't, so he wants to find a witch and steal its magic for himself. But if he's got any chance of finding one, he will have to travel into the forbidden Badwoods.

Xar doesn't realise he is about to capture an entirely different kind of enemy. A Warrior girl called Wish.

And inside this book, at this very moment, two worlds collide and the fate of the land is changed forever.

Xar and Wish must visit the dungeons at Warrior fort, and face the evil Queen.

But something that has been sleeping for hundreds of years is stirring ...

Series: The Wizard's of Once, #1
Condition: Pre-loved, Good

Format: C, 455 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2018 by Hodder Children's Books
ISBN: 9781444936728 (ISBN10: 1444936727)
Language: English

The bestselling, award-winning author of The Power delivers a dazzling tour de force where a handful of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it.

When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now, she’s surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry, while spouting technological prophecy. Martha may have left the cult, but if the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon—once a parable to her—are starting to come true, how much future is actually left?

Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin. She’s cornered, desperate, and—worst of all—might die without ever knowing what’s going on. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future?

Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha’s relentless drive and Zhen’s insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization.

By turns “playful, incisive, horribly relevant, and surprisingly hopeful” (Lauren Beukes, New York Times bestselling author of The Shining Girls), The Future unfolds at breakneck speed, highlighting how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them. The future is coming. The Future is here.

Condition: Pre-loved, Excellent

Format: C, 417 pages, Paperback
Published: November 7, 2023 by Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780008309145 (ISBN10: 0008309140)
Language: English

Also published as THE ARK.

Do the remains of Noah's Ark really exist? Before he dies, the father of ambitious young architect Dilara Kenner leaves her tantalising clues about the location of the legendary historical artefact - Noah's Ark. The most fabled relic of all time, the search for Noah's Ark has obsessed many over the years. And when Dilara starts her quest - aided by former army engineer Tyler Locke - she rapidly becomes transfixed by the thought of discovering it. But there are sinister forces gathering who have deadly reasons for wanting to be the first ones to get to the relic. From a helicopter crash in the Atlantic, to a sinister sect in Arizona's Mojave desert, to the remote slopes of Mount Ararat, this thrilling page-turner blends nonstop action with fascinating historical fact.

Condition: Pre-loved, Good

Format: C, 572 pages, Paperback
Published: August 19, 2010 by Sphere
ISBN: 9780751544152 (ISBN10: 0751544159)
Language: English

A sweeping epic tale of courage, drama and passion, looking at the experiences of Australians in World War Two.

New South Wales, 1947: When Shelly Wareing's husband Cole vanishes into the night, leaving only a note to say that he will come back no matter how long it takes, Shelly is bewildered. What could be the reason for his sudden disappearance? Searching for clues, Shelly discovers a box containing Nazi medals, an SS ring and a photo of a radiantly beautiful woman signed for her husband. Determined to uncover the truth, she sets out to track down Laetitia de Witt, the woman pictured in the photograph. Meanwhile, halfway across the world, Cole is on his own mission for the truth - while his enemies, who believe him to be a traitor, are in close pursuit..

Condition: Pre-loved, Good

Format: C, 640 pages, Hardcover
Published: October 10, 2012 by Headline Book Publishing
ISBN: 9780755352647 (ISBN10: 0755352645)
Language: English

A darkly satirical novel of love, revenge, and 1950s haute couture—now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, and Hugo Weaving

After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage returns to the small Australian town she was banished from as a child. She plans only to check on her ailing mother and leave. But Tilly decides to stay, and though she is still an outcast, her lush, exquisite dresses prove irresistible to the prim women of Dungatar. Through her fashion business, her friendship with Sergeant Farrat—the town’s only policeman, who harbors an unusual passion for fabrics—and a budding romance with Teddy, the local football star whose family is almost as reviled as hers, she finds a measure of grudging acceptance. But as her dresses begin to arouse competition and envy in town, causing old resentments to surface, it becomes clear that Tilly’s mind is set on a darker design: exacting revenge on those who wronged her, in the most spectacular fashion.

Condition: Pre-loved, Excellent

Format: B, 320 pages, Paperback
Published: November 5, 2015 by Serpent's Tail
ISBN: 9781846689949 (ISBN10: 1846689945)
Language: English

A gripping first-hand account of life at home after World War One. When underage soldier, Joe Henry, returns from the war in 1918, the England that he comes home to is very different from the one he left behind. His father is injured and the Spanish flu is raging... Joe may have survived World War One, but the danger isn't over yet.

Condition: Pre-loved, Good - Duffy Book sticker inside front cover. 

Format: B, 144 pages, Paperback
Published: August 2, 2018 by Scholastic
ISBN: 9781407186689 (ISBN10: 140718668X)
Language: English

When your father moves you to live on an island, can you put your broken-apart family back together again?

Minna is a typical fourteen-year-old. She's got lots of friends, and her boyfriend is the school hunk. She's being encouraged to 'take the relationship to the next stage' by her friend Lizzie.

Home is pretty much a non-event. Her mother seems distracted, her father breezes in and out but isn't really present, her brother is a stoner. Her life is turned upside down when Dad announces that he wants them to live on an off-shore island for a year and work to make it into a conservation island. Minna is horrified at the idea, as is her mother. All the more so when they discover that the whole venture is to be made into a reality TV series.

To her utter dismay, Minna finds herself on an island, with only her family for company. There's no phone or email contact with the outside world. The helicopter ride to the island has made Mum sick and she doesn't seem to be recovering. Minna has to cope with new family dynamics, come to terms with the fact that her parents' marriage is doomed, and has to learn domestic arts that don't rate very highly on her excitement meter.

Can you find a new you?

Condition: Pre-loved, Excellent

Format: B,286 pages, Paperback
Published: March 2, 2007 by Random House New Zealand
ISBN: 9781869418366 (ISBN10: 1869418360)
Language: English

Gabriella has many siblings and more animals. Her father is an impoverished poet with a penchant for mending cars with string and optimism, her mother a classicist now more concerned with trying to keep track of spiralling chaotic family life than the declining of verbs. Gabriella and her brothers run amuck through the attics and wilderness garden of their home, Mildney. Here she observes and experiences the triumphs and pitfalls of belonging to a wayward family, and longs for conformity. Her failure to achieve it is absolute.

Condition: Pre-loved, Good

Format: B, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2000 by Headline Book Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 9780747264811 (ISBN10: 0747264813)
Language: English

Shona Karim is in love. When she first sets eyes on Parvez at the age of ten, she knows he is the man of her dreams. Just like her father - tricked into marriage by her shamelessly deceitful mother - she is a hopeless romantic. Years later, lying to themselves and their families, the young lovers elope to start a new life above a sweet shop in south London.

But Shona's inheritance is one of double lives and complicit deception. As time passes, and her children are born, it appears that she too has dark secrets that are about to be exposed. Can a family built on lies ever shake off its legacy? And can love ever be strong enough to right the wrongs of the past?

Condition: Pre-loved, Good

Format: B, 356 pages, Paperback
Published: August 3, 2008 by Pan Publishing
ISBN: 9780330443630 (ISBN10: 0330443631)
Language: English