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Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other–if only he can come out of the war alive.

A biography of the life of Australia’s most decorated woman, Joice Loch (1887- 1982). Born during a cyclone in Queensland she spent her childhood in grinding poverty. During her years of unpaid drudgery on various family farms she wrote a children’s book and became a freelance journalist. After marrying Sydney Loch in 1918 she spent some dangerous time in Ireland, before they escaped to Poland to work with the Quakers rescuing the dispossessed from disease and starvation.

Brought up by the same parents, but born to two different mothers, Nathalie and David have grown up as brother and sister. Following the discovery of her own child’s hereditary hearing disorder Nathalie’s previous acceptance of her adoption is shaken and she sets out to find her own birth mother.

Combining southern warmth with unabashed emotion and side-splitting hilarity, Fannie Flagg takes readers back to Elmwood Springs, Missouri, where the most unlikely and surprising experiences of a high-spirited octogenarian inspire a town to ponder the age-old question: Why are we here?

Building this jazz and poetry infused novel up from the barest facts of Buddy Bolden’s life – cornet player, one photograph, disappeared, went mad during a street parade, never recorded – Michael Ondaatje creates a work not just about jazz, but of jazz. At times the novel can be obtuse and fragmentary, much in the same ways as jazz can be, but the reader who perseveres is well-rewarded by the sparkling prose and assured narrative drive.

Contact is the only novel by Carl Sagan. Published in 1985, the book is about many of Sagan’s key concerns: how science is done, how scientific findings can be communicated to non-scientists, the relationship between science and religion, the strange and interesting personalities of scientists, and SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence).It ranked No. 7 on the 1985 U.S. bestseller list.

The novel originated as a screenplay in 1979; when development of the film stalled, Sagan decided to convert the stalled film into a novel. The film concept was subsequently revived and eventually released in 1997 as the film Contact starring Jodie Foster.

The brilliant and forensic precursor to modern crime writing, or another dreary and depressing Russian novel full of difficult to pronounce names? In its psychological insights into the mind of one man among many, this masterpiece of modern writing remains as contemporary and chilling as it did when first written by Dostoyevsky in 1866.

In what could be construed as a coming-of-age story for thirty-somethings, Gilbert leaves behind an excruciating divorce, tumultuous affair, and debilitating depression as she sets off on a yearlong quest to bridge the gulf between body, mind, and spirit. Part self-deprecating tour guide, part wry, witty chronicler, Gilbert relates this chapter of her life with a compelling, richly detailed narrative that eschews the easy answers of New Age rhetoric.

With humour and great affection, William writes about his family and the characters in their lives, their misadventures, pranks, dreams and and life. Most of all, it is a realistic, down-to-earth book by a man who had a great time growing up.

After the trouble starts and the soldiers arrive on Matilda’s island, only one white person stays behind. Mr. Watts, whom the kids call Pop Eye, wears a red nose and pulls his wife around on a trolley, and he steps in to teach the children when there is no one else. His only lessons consist of reading from his battered copy of Great Expectations, a book by his friend Mr. Dickens.For Matilda, Dickens’s hero Pip becomes as real to her as her own mother, and the greatest friendship of her life has begun. Soon Mr. Watts’s book begins to inflame the children’s imaginations with dreams about Dickens’s London and the larger world. But how will they answer when the soldiers demand to know: where is this man named Pip?Set against the stunning beauty of Bougainville in the South Pacific during the civil war in the early 1990s, Lloyd Jones’s breathtaking novel shows what magic a child’s imagination makes possible even in the face of terrible violence and what power stories have to fuel the imagination.

In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.

Six hundred years ago in Chesapeake Bay, a young woman’s unprovoked and brutal murder on the eve of her wedding threatens to destroy theAlgonquin Nation in a brutal war. No ordinary woman, Red Knot was the heir to the Greenstone clan and the future leader of the independent villages. Her death has shattered all alliances and left a power void which several ambitious clan chiefs see as their destiny to fill.

A novel by a man who committed ritual suicide (seppuku) at the age of 45 is not likely to be a very cheerful read, but The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea is as brilliant and concise a read as exists within the modern canon.

Salvation Creek is Susan’s first and only book to date. It is a biographical account of her life journey following the death of her husband and beloved brother only three days later.

This story is set in London, 1807. William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly.

The story begins in the late 18th century, when France’s poor and oppressed were beginning to plan the downfall of the aristocracy. Young French aristocrat Charles Darnay, disgusted by his family ’s treatment of poor people, renounces his inheritance and goes to England, where he marries a young woman called Lucy Manett. Meanwhile Monsieur and Madame Defarge, two powerful revolutionary figures who hate Darnay’s aristocratic family, are determined that Darnay will die on the guillotine.

It is the first book of the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella “Bella” Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. The novel is followed by New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn

This novel takes place in 1892, and begins with a trial in which Pitt’s testimony results in the murder conviction of a wealthy and important man, John Adinett, even though no motive can be found and Adinett denies the crime. With help from his former sergeant, Pitt begins to uncover evidence of a political conspiracy that will explain why Adinett killed Fetters.