Upcoming Events for Kids

Happy new year! In 2013 we're as excited as ever about the wonderful world of books and we have got some fun events for the kids to kickstart the year - including events with authors Jacqueline Harvey and Stephanie Dowrick, plus fun afternoons for Fancy Nancy and Ninjago fans.

Give us a ring on (02) 9572 7766 if you're interested in booking your spot for any of these events.

Shearer's Bookshop 2012 Bestsellers

What were our bestselling books of 2012? We had 9 kids books, 7 fiction titles, 1 sports biography, 1 biography, 1 cookbook and 1 humour title.

20. Essential Leunig: Cartoons from a Winding Path by Michael Leunig

19. Jamie's 15 Minute Meals by Jamie Oliver

18. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

17. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

16. Alice Miranda at School by Jacqueline Harvey

15. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

14. New Kid: Ghost Club #1 by Deborah Abela

13. Third Wheel: Diary of a Wimpy Kid #7 by Jeff Kinney

12. 13 Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

11. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

10. Happiest Refugee by Anh Do

9. Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin

8. Skulduggery Pleasant #7: Kingdom of the Wicked by Derek Landy

7. Alice-Miranda in New York by Jacqueline Harvey

6. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

5. Micky O: My Life Story by Michael O'Loughlin

4. All That I Am by Anna Funder

3. Just Doomed by Andy Griffiths

2. Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James

1. 26 Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

Staff Picks - Best Books of 2012: Rebecca

There But For The by Ali Smith 

A fascinating and enjoyable read. A seemingly simple plot – a stranger invited to a dinner party gets up between main course and dessert to lock himself in the spare bedroom – sets the stage for a multifaceted exploration into a variety of characters and themes. The ideas of memory, history, relationships, and existence all come into play in this wonderfully crafted novel that will leave you pondering long after you’ve finished! 

Staff Picks - Best Books of 2012: Karma

Reborn: Journals & Notebooks 1947 – 1963 - Susan Sontag

The first of Susan Sontag’s collection of journals, Reborn, provides insightful fragments of a remarkable intellect. Beginning in 1949 from the perspective of a 16-year-old Sontag, the journals document a personal journey oscillating between subtle and sharp reflections of a woman who was becoming a cultural and intellectual icon. Between longer passages are lists, stray thoughts, and incomplete ideas, all charged with potential, with many forming the bases for future essays. From her youthful yet completely self-aware curiosities, to her emotional clarity in intellectualising her emotions and relationships, Reborn presents snapshots of a great mind exploring the potentialities of life.

It Chooses You – Miranda July

The thing I like about Miranda July is her ability to stray beyond what is considered “normal” with a completely genuine eccentricity and matter-of-fact approach, which has the added result of making you feel completely together. Her 2005 book No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories sums this feeling up perfectly. Her most recent book, It Chooses You, is a collection of short interviews accompanied by photographs. The process of creating the book has just as much appeal as the interviews themselves: July was procrastinating from writing a screenplay and instead took to replying to classifieds ads of people selling their everyday items. The book is a charming collection of interviews with the sellers about their objects and the meanings they hold to them, which does much to highlight our own stories about the objects we choose to keep and those we throw away.

Home/World: Space, Community and Marginality in Sydney’s West – Helen Grace, Ghassan Hage, Lesley Johnson, Julie Langsworth & Michael Symonds

A book with lingering relevance, Home/World presents themes found across all urban spaces: marginality, home, community, modernity, nature, and migration.  This collection of essays illuminates not only the ways in which Western Sydney has been negatively represented as a place of disadvantage and grim fates, but also presents rich, grounded reflections of home, community, and possibility. Home/World explores the contradictions, nuances, and ambivalences of feeling at “home” in a city with scattered thoughts on multiculturalism, national identity, and belonging. A very interesting read that lights up intellectual lightbulbs.

Staff Picks - Best Books of 2012: Barbara

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 

Rachel Joyce is an award winning English playwright and this is her first novel.  It was longlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize. Six years ago Rachel wrote The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry as a play for the BBC Radio 4 and it won an award for the best radio play.  Rachel wanted to write a book for many years and was persuaded by her colleagues to write "Harold's" story as a novel. She wanted to write a story that didn't quite fit the rules and make the implausible, plausible....and I think she succeeded.  Harold has retired and lives with his wife Maureen in a southern Englist town. Maureen's a bit of a shrew and criticises him all the time and poor Harold wears it without a murmur.  He receives a letter from a work colleague he hasn't seen for 30 years.  She writes that she is in a hospice and wants to thank him for his friendship many years before and to say goodbye.  Harold immediately writes to her and sets out to post the letter.  He contemplates at the post box and decides to move on to the post office.  When he reaches it he makes the amazing decision to just deliver it in person.  The problem is that he lives in southern England and the hospice is in the north of the country 627 miles away!  And so his pilgrimage begins.  Sounds implausible I know, but the people he meets along the way, even the television crews, make this a quirky story with many surprising dimensions. I've had Shearer's customers who didn't want the novel to end as they loved it so much.

The Daughters of Mars by Tom Keneally

Tom Keneally is an inveterate storyteller.  Tom has written a World War One novel from the fresh perspective of the nurses rather than the soldiers.  The story begins in the Macleay Valley of New South Wales with two sisters Sally and Naomi Durance.  Both are nurses, one leaves and the other stays home combining work with looking after aged parents.  When the war begins they both sign up but they are hiding a dark secret.  The Durance sisters witness first hand the work and everything  the war has to offer.  This is a novel about the closeness of siblings and love.  The Daughters of Mars also touches on some interesting subjects, the changing face of medicine during the early 1900s, conscription, Quakers and the plight of conscientious objectors.  Tom is renowned for his meticulous research and the story was inspired by journals of two Australian nursing sisters written during the Great War.  It is a story that stays in your mind long after you read the last page.

Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin

Arthur Conan Doyle brought Sherlock Holomes back from the dead following a public outcry.  Ian Rankin just yanked Detective Inspector John Rebus, the dour Scottish detective out of retirement and the news has thrilled his fans throught the world (including me)!  Rebus finds himself at odds with Rankin's latest protagonist Malcolm Fox when all he really wants to do is to discover the truth about a series of seemingly unconnected disappearances stretching back to 2000.

Rebus wants to investigate the crimes but nobody else is interested.  Of course that doesn't thwart Rebus, not even when his own life and the careers of those around him are on the line.  Ian Rankin not only creates great characters but his description of place is so stunning I even looked up an atlas to follow the areas of Scotland he was visiting in search of answers.  The title, the first scene and the last scene in the novel all come together in a very clever piece of writing.  Mr Rankin is indeed a great storyteller.

Staff Picks - Best Books of 2012: Nick

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

I absolutely loved this grand fantasy debut from Patrick Rothfuss. The Name of the Wind tells the epic tale of Kvothe (“pronounced nearly the same as ‘quothe’”), an orphaned young bard with a knack for magic and mischief. It is told from the perspective of an older Kvothe recounting his earlier days, and how his story became part of the mythology of his world. The overarching narrative (i.e. the story of Kvothe) is impressively interspersed with flowing tales of the history and mythology of the setting. Patrick Rothfuss has managed to make a brilliant story about stories and the power of storytelling. 

The Name of the Wind is so much more than standard fantasy. It’s that all too rare find – fantasy distinctly different to Tolkien. The Name of the Wind carries on the grand tradition of wizarding colleges introduced by Ursula le Guin and JK Rowling. Rothfuss takes his cast of likeable (albeit lovably flawed) heroes through an immersive, gritty, and believable setting. Although the standard heroism and adventure of fantasy is tempered by tremendous sadness, The Name of the Wind is never without humour. 

It is a rollicking good read, full of myth, adventure, and action. A must read for anyone who calls themselves a fantasy fan. 

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

What can I say about Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of adventure that hasn’t already been said!? This is THE pirate story against which all others have to be judged. Before Will Turner and Captain Jack Sparrow, Jim Benbow and Long John Silver set off on the high seas with only treasure and adventure in mind. Written in magnificent prose, Treasure Island has it all! Murder most foul, cavalry charges, sailing in rough seas, pirates, mutiny, buried treasure, ancient skeletons, marooning, and more!! If you like adventure and pirates, you have to read Treasure Island. It’s just as perfect for young boys and girls looking for an exciting read, as it is for those of us who are slightly older, but wish we weren’t.

- Nick

Staff Picks - Best Books of 2012: Layth

Skagboys by Irvine Welsh

Skagboys is Scottish author, Irvine Welsh’s third run at the Trainspotting storyline he started back in 1993. He returned to the characters in 2002 for a sequel, Porno, set about seven years onwards from the events of Trainspotting. Now, a decade after the sequel Welsh has returned to the grey port of Leith in Scotland to tell you how it all got started. Everybody has made a return for this much anticipated sequel; the cynical, red headed Mark Renton; the slick and charming Simon ‘Sick Boy’ Williamson; the dopey yet good natured ‘Spud’ Murphy; the intelligent but easily led Tommy Lawrence and the psychotic and ever threatening Franco Begbie. Welsh takes us back to before most of them became the junkies we were introduced to in Trainspotting. He reaches far back into the pasts of these characters and, having read the other two books in the trilogy by this point, I felt like I was really allowed a deep insight into what makes these people tick. 

My favourite thing about Welsh’s writing is his amazing ability to build extended universes. All of his books, not just those in the Trainspotting trilogy, all take place within the same universe’ more often than not in the Port of Leith or the wider area of Edinburgh. This is done expertly in Skagboys as Welsh not only brings back old favourites but breathes a whole lot of life into characters that were merely passing by in the other novels, or even only discussed and never introduced. Another reason I just couldn’t put this book down, was the way Welsh managed to really give the reader an insight into the social and political upheavals that existed in the turbulent times of Thatchers England and how these factors (among others) went to contribute to the massive heroin epidemic of 1980s England and Scotland. 

In short, this is one of my favourite books of this year, written by one of my favourite active writers at the moment. Do yourself a favour and check him out. (Disclaimer: not for the faint of heart).

 

  A Clockwork Orange: 50^th Anniversary Edition by Anthony Burgess 

A Clockwork Orange certainly needs no introduction by now. Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novella has garnered much controversy both in its written form as well as on stage and screen. 50 years on, this comprehensive edition includes a foreword by British novelist Martin Amis and an introduction by Andrew Biswell. As well as the classic story you have come to know and love quite intimately, this edition also includes notes on the text; a glossary of ‘nadsat’, to help explain most of the gibberish Alex and his ‘droogies’ speak; as well as essays and reviews on A Clockwork Orange and, finally, a never before seen epilogue. This edition is sure to please any existing fans of the novel and any new ones that care to explore themes of human autonomy and the choice between good and evil.

Texts from Dog by October Jones

Have you ever seen you dog give you ‘that look’? You know the one, they’ll sit there and stare at you with those big wide eyes, head cocked to one side, tongue protruding from a big wet grin? If so, I bet you’ve wondered what the little menace was trying to tell you. Whatever it was, it probably won’t be in this book.