Reading Connection for Adults

A baby on the way and two killers on the loose. Will Detective Lindsay Boxer be pushed to breaking point? An eccentric professor walks into Lindsay's homicide department to report a murder that hasn't yet happened. A convicted serial killer wakes from a two-year coma. He says he's ready to tell where the bodies are buried, but does he have a much more sinister plan in mind? Lindsay doesn't have much time to stop a terrifying future from unfolding. But all the crimes in the world seem like nothing when she is suddenly faced with the possibility of the most devastating loss of her life.

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Gina and Sally Makepiece have inherited a stall in the French House - an antiques centre nestled in the heart of the English countryside. Gina is determined to drag the French House and its grumpy owner into the twenty-first century. Bearing all the attributes of a modern-day Mr Rochester, Matthew Ballinger is less than happy with the whirlwind that has arrived on his doorstep. The last thing either of them want is to fall in love. But will a trip to France change their minds?

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A schizophrenic, map-obsessed, shut-in who tours the world using a computer program witnesses what he believes to be a murder in downtown New York City and enlists his caretaker brother in an effort to investigate.

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When marketing executive Tessa Mathison leaves London to attend her great-aunt's funeral in Australia, her life is in turmoil. An indiscretion during a boozy night out has resulted in Tessa's name being mud in London's cliquey marketing scene, and soon after she arrives in her homeland she discovers she's been sacked. Tessa's childhood home, Danjar Plains, is an isolated station which holds some bad memories for her. She plans to escape it as soon as the funeral is over, but then an unusual request in her Aunt Violet's will makes it impossible for her to leave. When charismatic and charming Brendan McKensie introduces himself to Tessa, staying at Danjar Plains no longer seems such a hardship. As various secrets begin to unravel, Tessa realises letting go of her heart may hold the key to unlocking both her past and her future.

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The sequel to the New York Times bestselling Princeps follows magical hero Quaeryt as he leads history's first Imager fighting force into war. Given the rank of subcommander by his wife's brother, Lord Bhayar, the ruler of Telaryn, Quaeryt joins an invading army into the hostile land of Bovaria, in retaliation for Bovaria's attempted annexation of Telaryn. But Quaeryt has his own agenda in doing Bhayar's bidding: to legitimize Imagers in the hearts and minds of all men, by demonstrating their value as heroes as he leads his battalion into one costly battle after another. Making matters worse, court intrigues pursue Quaeryt even to the front lines of the conflict, as the Imager's enemies continue to plot against him.

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An Oxford ethnologist, Leonard, travels to Papua in 1968 with his young Dutch wife, Rika, to take up a post at the university, and to further his research by filming the local Papuans in a remote village. Conservative and well-meaning, Leonard wants his camera to capture moments but not to effect any change. But this is Papua at the dawning of Independence and everything is change. Rika forms a close knit circle of friends within the university and the town. Laedi, a hafkast, and wife of the ambitious Don; Martha, a student trying to find her own identity; and Milton, a writer who wants to emulate his hero, the author James Baldwin. But it is the two Papuan brothers Aaron and Jacob, whom Rika is most drawn to. Thirty years later, a young art historian, Jericho, travels from London to Sydney to ask Martha to write the story of his parents and his heritage. Coming home to Papua New Guinea, Jericho finds that he must reconcile his own history with the lure of the Papuan mountains and love.

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Detective Senior Sergeant Nick Matheson knows organised crime and gang violence from the inside out. He is so good at undercover work that his colleagues are not sure which side he is really on. His posting to Strathnairn is supposed to be a return to normal duties, but the murder victim in the campground is only the first of Jo's discoveries. As Jo and Nick uncover drugs and a stash of illegal weapons, the evidence points towards locals young men already on the wrong side of the law. But as far as Nick s concerned, it doesn t add up. When the body count starts mounting each brutally punished before death he becomes convinced that one person is behind the killings, one person is manipulating the men to commit horrific crimes, forming them into his own private drug-dealing cartel. Jo has seen the man's face, and now she's his next target. Nick is determined to protect her, but trapped in the rugged outback he and Jo will have to act quickly if they are going to survive.

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Mum is the reference point. If you ever get confused about anything, there she is, waiting with all her knowledge of you.' Grace Fisher, mother of three, one day decides her husband is a sore disappointment and moves the family from Melbourne to a coastal village in Victoria. But Ian's slow dissolution on the couch masked a depression that will harrow him into an early grave, leaving the kids with a lifetime of questioning: what happened to their father; how did he get so sad? Between their father's demise and Grace's hardscrabble existence working at a local bakery, each child is left to find meaning on their own. Edie, the eldest child, locks herself into a romantic ideal so lofty that it can't help but fail. The middle child, Juliet, struts and careens through life, filling it only with what she can seduce, steal and manipulate. Sibling rivalry between sisters proves the slowest and fiercest of burns. Love comes easily for Ted, the youngest, but when his wife abandons him to raise two daughters on his own, the perils of fatherhood are laid bare. When Grace, the distant, imperfect hub of the family, is diagnosed with terminal cancer, the siblings are forced to confront each other as adults, and come to understand their mother.

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Two star-crossed lovers--Enza and Ciro--meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever. Set during the years preceding and during World War I.

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Can love survive the ultimate test? - Brett Rutland, Carter Engineering's top troubleshooter, is sent to the L.A. office to crack a case of embezzlement. Brett's a hard man, so it hit him like a sledgehammer when he fell in love with Tessa Conway. Half the men in the office had been in love with her for years, but Brett was the first she'd loved in return. Their love is perfect, too perfect to last. And when Brett discovers the identity of the embezzler, his whole world is about to come crashing down

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Catherine Ling was abandoned on the streets of Hong Kong at age four. Schooled in the art of survival, she traded in the only commodity she had: information. As a teenager, she came under the tutelage of a mysterious man known only as Hu Chang - a skilled assassin and master poisoner. As a young woman, she was recruited by the CIA and now, she is known as one of their most effective operatives. Having lived life in the shadows, Catherine is aware of the wobbly moral compass of her existence and even more aware of just how expendable she is to those she deals with. When her old friend Hu Chang creates something so deadly, and completely untraceable, the chase is on to be the first to get it. With rogue operative John Gallo also on the hunt, Catherine finds herself pitted against a group so villainous and a man so evil that she may not survive the quest to protect those she cares about. Iris Johansen is at her page-turning best in this novel that takes you from the corridors of Langley to the alleyways of Hong Kong, and the darkest places of the human soul.

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Cecilia was certain she would never attend her high-school reunion but with the false bravado accompanying her relationship breakdown with her husband she views the reunion as an opportunity to settle old scores. But Cecilia is not the only one confronting demons old and new so letting go the past she finds friendship in a must unexpected place.

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Cross-dressing convicts, effeminate bushrangers and women-shortage woes - here is the first ever history of sex in Australia, from Botany Bay to the present day. In this highly readable social history, Frank Bongiorno uses vivid examples to chart the changing sex lives of Australians. He shows how a predominantly male penal colony gave rise to a rough and ready culture: the scarcity of women made for strange bedfellows, and the female minority was both powerful and vulnerable. Then came the Victorian era, in which fears of sodomy helped bring an end to the transportation of convicts. Tracing the story all the way to the present, Bongiorno shows how the quest for respectability always has another side to it, and how the contraceptive pill changed so much. Along the way he deals with some intriguing questions - were the Kelly gang gay? Why did the law ignore lesbianism for so long? - and introduces some remarkable characters, both reformers and radicals. This is the thought-provoking story of sex in Australia.

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Part memoir, part fitness and health manual, How I Got My Wiggle Back chronicles the life of internationally acclaimed childrens entertainer Anthony Field, and details his remarkable victory in a 25-year battle with illness and injury.

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Britain’s bestselling, hugely popular bakery is back with over 100 new tried-and-triple-tested recipes that celebrate classic baking and deliciously old-fashioned treats. This stunning new cookbook, including some step-by-step photos and every foolproof recipe with its own image, offers some of the bakers’ all-time favourite recipes and brand new, inspirational ideas. Our love of baking has been handed down from generation to generation and this collection of gorgeous Hummingbird bakes includes favourite cupcakes, loaves, layer cakes, biscuits, sweets, roulades, pies, puds and savouries – all with the unique Hummingbird twist.

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Jenna Miscavige Hill, niece of Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, was raised as a Scientologist but left the controversial religion in 2005. In Beyond Belief, she shares her true story of life inside the upper ranks of the sect, details her experiences as a member Sea Org—the church's highest ministry, speaks of her "disconnection" from family outside of the organization, and tells the story of her ultimate escape.

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They say you can never truly love a child that is not your own, but that goes against every instinct that runs through me. For I have loved children born to other women all my life and every child that I have ever cared for, I've adored with all my heart. Many I would have laid down my life for, in fact on some memorable occasions when I fled to air raid shelters clutching my charges to my chest, I very nearly did. In 62 years of being a nanny I have lost count of the number of children I've cared for, but it must be approaching 100. This is a story from a time when nothing was taken for granted and life itself was in peril on a near-daily basis. But the war was also a time when people pulled together like never before or since, and it called upon Brenda to make sacrifices she'd never imagined having to make. Warm, funny and incredibly moving, Brenda's memoir brings to life the colourful world of wartime England.

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I looked down at this man who adorned the bedroom walls of girls all over the world. His eyes were spinning, his makeup was melting and he had the goofiest grin on his handsome face. This was what the Vulture Club was about. This was fun. This was as rock and roll as it got.

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