Book Reviews

2024 Year In Review: SMSA’s Top 10 Books

Have you managed to read all of SMSA’s most popular books?

Discover our Top 10 most borrowed titles for 2024, in our Year in Review series.

We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Sections

Top 10 Books

Click the title to see the book in the Library Catalogue

 

1

A Refiner’s Fire by Donna Leon

When two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s campi, the son of a local hero is implicated. But when Commissario Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy foreigner to vet this man, Dario Monforte, for a job, he discovers that he might not be such a hero after all. This seeming contradiction, and a brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions.

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2

Cometh the Hour by Jeffrey Archer

Cometh the Hour opens with the reading of a suicide note, which has devastating consequences for Harry and Emma Clifton, Giles Barrington and Lady Virginia. Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics and try to rescue Karin, the woman he loves, from behind the Iron Curtain. But is Karin truly in love with him, or is she a spy?

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3

The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson

Jersey, 1943. When the German Army invades the tranquil island, librarian Grace La Motée is determined to keep her services running. Ordered to destroy books which threaten the Nazi regime, she refuses, instead hiding them away and fighting back by forming a book club: a lifeline to help islanders escape the terror of war, one chapter at a time. But soon Grace’s quiet acts of bravery become even more perilous. She’s harbouring dangerous secrets – ones that put her life in danger – and when tensions turn to violence, she is forced to face the true, terrible cost of resistance.

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4

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

The Barnes family are in trouble. Until recently they ran the biggest business in town, now they’re teetering on the brink of bankruptcy – and that’s just the start of their problems. Dickie and Imelda’s marriage is hanging by a thread; straight-A student Cass is careening off the rails; PJ is hopelessly in debt to the school bully. Meanwhile the ghosts of old mistakes are rising out of the past to meet them, but everyone’s too wrapped up in the present to see the danger looming.

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5

A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm

A waiter’s job is to deceive you. They want you to believe in a luxurious calm because on the other side of that door… is hell. Edward Chisholm’s spellbinding memoir of his time as a Parisian waiter takes you below the surface of one of the most iconic cities in the world and right into its glorious underbelly. The waiter inhabits a world of inhuman hours, snatched sleep and dive bars; scraping by on coffee, bread and cigarettes, often under sadistic managers, with a wage so low you’re fighting your colleagues for tips.

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6

Safe Haven by Shankari Chandran

Arriving in Australia seeking asylum, Fina dedicates herself to aiding the refugees who are held in Port Camden, a remote island outpost. Over time she settles into a life within a community of like-minded people, finding a new family, far from her original home. After she speaks out for those being detained, Fina becomes the focus of a media storm that leads to her arrest, and the threat of deportation. When a security officer dies under suspicious circumstances, Lucky, a special investigator, arrives to uncover the truth. The mystery is tied to Fina’s fate—and the secrets she reveals will divide the town and the nation.

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7

Knife by Salman Rushdie

On the morning of 12 August 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black – black clothes, black mask – rushed down the aisle towards him, wielding a knife. His first thought- So it’s you. Here you are. What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the world.

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8

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude – and the true significance of this particular date is revealed.

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9

The Women by Kristin Hannah

‘Women can be heroes, too’. When twenty-year-old nursing student, Frances “Frankie” McGrath, hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on California’s idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path.

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10

Tipping Point by Dinuka McKenzie

Weeks from Christmas in the sweltering heat of summer, Detective Kate Miles’ estranged brother, Luke Grayling, returns home to Esserton to farewell a childhood friend – Ant Reed, dead by suicide. Within days of the funeral, another young man, Marcus Rowntree, is found shot dead in the back paddock of his property.
Almost twenty years ago, Luke, Ant and Marcus were best mates in high school and now two of the three friends are dead. A tragic coincidence? Or is there something more sinister connecting the three men?

 

 

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Honorable Mentions

Click the title to see the book in the Library Catalogue

 

Most Held/Reserved Books

James by Percival Everett

Most Popular eBook

What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan

Most Popular Audiobook

The Highgate Cemetery Murder by Irina Shapiro

Most Popular eMagazine

Hello! Magazine

 

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We’d love your suggestions

Have you read something you loved this year, but it’s not part of our collection? Or maybe there’s a book you wish we had? We’re always happy to hear your suggestions! You can share your book recommendations by writing in the suggestion book at the library desk, or submit online via the library catalogue or suggest a book for the library to purchase

SEARCH THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE
MAKE A PURCHASE SUGGESTION

 

2024 Year In Review: SMSA’s Top 10 Books
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