Book Club List

True Stories 2010 listings

Robyn ANNEAR, The Man who lost himself - All through

the summer of 1874, "The Times" devoted an entire page

everyday to the great Tichborne trial, the longest-running

and most mesmerizing legal trial of the 19th century. This

work explores the story of the man at the centre of it all

they called the Tichborne Claimant.

Lance ARMSTRONG, It’s Not About the Bike - Autobiog-

raphy of world cycling superstar, Lance Armstrong - cancer

survivor and seven time winner of the Tour de France.

Sam and Jenny BAILEY, Head over heels – Autobiogra-

phy. At the age of 19, a young farmer, Sam Bailey, miscal-

culated a bend in the road, overturned his ute and became

a quadriplegic. After months of struggle, he learned how to

resume his life as a farmer, running a sheep and cattle

property in northwest New South Wales.

Jean-Dominique BAUBY, The diving bell and the but-

terfly – Memoire. The diary of Jean-Dominique Bauby

who, with his left eyelid (the only surviving muscle after a

massive stroke) dictated a remarkable book about his ex-

periences locked inside his body.

Geraldine BROOKS, Foreign Correspondence– Mem-

oire. The leap between dreamy child living in a provincial

Australian neighborhood and journalist hopscotching

through war zones is massive. In Foreign Correspon-

dence, Geraldine Brooks unravels the rope that pulled

and tugged her toward adventure and away from "a very

small world" where her family had no car and had never

boarded a plane or placed an international phone call.

Bill BRYSON, A Walk in the Woods - Returning to the U.S.

after 20 years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to re-

connect with his mother country by hiking the length of the

2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping

section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless

plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently

comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard les-

sons about self-reliance.

Augusten BURROUGHS, Running with Scissors –

Memoire. The true story of a boy whose mother (a poet

with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be

raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa, and a

lunatic in the bargain.

Bryce CORBETT, A Town Like Paris – Memoire. Aus-

tralian journalist Corbett offers a humorous and vivid ac-

count of his love affair with Paris.

Li CUNXIN, Mao’s Last Dancer – Autobiography. Li

Cunxin, his parents' sixth son, lived in a small house

with twenty of his relatives. When he was eleven years

old, Madame Mao decided to revive the Peking Dance

Academy, and sent her men into the countryside

searching for children to attend. Chosen on the basis of

his physique alone, Li Cunxin was taken from his family

and sent to the city for rigorous training. What follows is

the story of how a small, terrified, lonely boy became

one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world.

Alain de BOTTON, How Prouse Can Change Your Life -

Drawing from Proust's letters, essays, and fiction, de Bot-

ton transforms Proust's life and work into a no-nonsense

guide to life.

Susan DUNCAN, Salvation Creek– Autobiography.

Heartbreaking, funny, and honest, this is the story of a

woman who found the courage not only to walk away from

a successful career and begin again, but to beat the odds

in her own battle for survival and find a new life—and

love—in a tiny waterside idyll cut off from the outside

world.

Antonia FRASER, Marie Antoinette – Biography. Marie An-

toinette (1755-93) emerges in Fraser's sympathetic portrait as

a goodhearted girl woefully undereducated and poorly pre-

pared for the dynastic political intrigues into which she was

thrust at age 14, when her mother, Empress Maria Theresa,

married her off to the future Louis XVI to further Austria's inter-

ests in France.

FYNN, Mister God, This is Anna - Mister God, This Is

Anna is a book by Sydney Hopkins under the pseudonym

"Fynn" describing the adventures of Anna, a mischievous

yet wise five and a half year old who Fynn finds as a run-

away. Nineteen year old Fynn takes her in and becomes

her caretaker and closest friend.

John GROGAN, The Longest Trip Home - Like Marley &

Me, The Longest Trip Home is a memoir, this time mining

material from Grogan's childhood.

Clive HAMILTON, Affluenza - Anyone concerned about

the level of their personal debt or frustrated by the rat race

of aspiring to an affluent lifestyle will appreciate this cri-

tique of the effects of over-consumption. This analysis

pulls no punches as it describes both the problem and

what can be done to stop it.

Dean KOONTZ, A Big Little Life : a Memoir of a Joyful

Dog - Dean had always wanted a dog--had even written

several books in which dogs were featured. But not until

Trixie was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful

creature could bring about in him.

William MCINNES, A Man’s Gotta Have a Hobby - Mem-

oire. An affectionate stroll down the memory lane of McIn-

nes' childhood with his noisy, nutty, disorganised family.

Asne SEIERSTAD, The Bookseller of Kabul – Memoire.

After living for three months with the Kabul bookseller Sultan

Khan in the spring of 2002, Norwegian journalist Seierstad

penned this astounding portrait of a nation recovering from

war, undergoing political flux and mired in misogyny and

poverty.

Nigel SLATER, Toast – Memoire. Toast is Nigel Slater’s truly

extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food.

In each chapter, as he takes readers on a tour of the contents

of his family’s pantry—rice pudding, tinned ham, cream soda,

mince pies, lemon drops, bourbon biscuits—we are trans-