Great Reads: Recommendations from our Librarian!

Reading is proven to reduce stress and anxiety, can distract you when you are feeling overwhelmed and can make you feel connected, introducing you to new places, people and ideas. During the COVID-19 crisis embrace the power of positivity, and stave off boredom, with these great reads. 
 
Read a Great Series

• A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
• Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda
• Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan
• Brotherband by John Flanagan
• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis (why not read all 7 Chronicles of Narnia books?)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (and the rest of the series) by JK Rowling
• Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
• Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo
• Laws of Magic by Michael Pryor
• Percy Jackson and the Olypmpians by Rick Riordan
• Cherub by Robert Muchamore
• Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
• Inheritance cycle (beginning with Eragon) by Christopher Paolini
• Mirror Visitor by Christelle Dabos
• I am number four by Pittacus Lore

 
Read some Manga or Graphic novels from our large collection.
 
Read with Friends – GGS Book Clubs are offering groups of friends the chance to borrow from their sets of the same titles. You and your friends can both read the same book at home and chat about it online. Titles available include:

• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
• Ready Player One (older readers)
• Tickled Onions
• Red Dog
• Going Postal (older readers)
• The Eyre Affair (older readers)
• A Wrinkle in Time
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
• Dark Lord: the teenage years

 
Have a Laugh

• Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey
• Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
• The Floods series by Colin Thompson
• The brilliant world of Tom Gates
• Anything at all by David Walliams (eg. Bad Dad)
• I funny: School of laughs 
• Katt vs Dogg by James Patterson
• Anything by Andy Griffiths (Treehouse books, Just series
• Con-nerd by Oliver Phommavanh.
• Diary of a wimpy vampire by Tim Collins.

 
Growing Up, Fitting In and Standing Out

• Would the real Stanley Carrot please stand up? by Rob Stevens
• The pain, my mother, Sir Tiffy, Cyber Boy and me by Michael Gerard Bauer
• Noah can't even by Simon James Green
• My name is not Peaseblossom by Jackie French
• Zinnia and the bees by Danielle Davis
• There's a boy in the girls' bathroom by Louis Sachar
• After the woods by Kim Savage
• The art of being normal by Lisa Williamson
• Because of you by Pip Harry
• Wavelength by AJ Betts
• All the bright places by Jennifer Niven
• The improbable theory of Ana & Zak by Brian Katcher

 
 
Speculative

• Hive by AJ Betts
• The beast of Cretacea by Todd Strasser
• Early riser by Jasper Fforde 
• The future of us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
• Girl gone viral by Arvin Ahmadi
• Glitter by Aprilynne Pike
• Impostors by Scott Westerfeld
• Sidekicked by John David Anderson
• Sorrowline by Niel Bushnell
• The extinction gambit (the Extraordinaires) Michael Pryor
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
• Troll Mountain by Matthew Reilly
• Time out of Time: Beyond the door by Maureen Doyle McQuerry.

 
Read something/Do something
The library has a great selection of books on

• Cookery
• Woodwork
• Drawing
• Crafts

 
Read Intriguing Non-Fiction
We have a great collection of fascinating non-fiction books made for reading for pleasure, especially in our Narrative Non-Fiction section. Here are just a few. Why not drop in to the library to choose one that catches your imagination?
 

• This will make you smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking
• 147 things: my user's guide to the universe, from black holes to bellybuttons
• City of Light, city of poison: murder, magic, and the first police chief of Paris
• Breakthrough: how one teen innovator is changing the world
• A strange wilderness: the lives of the great mathematicians
• Curious: life hacks through maths- how to look smart, how to find love, how to win at games & sport
• A little history of Economics
• Zombie economics: how dead ideas still walk among us.
• China: land of dragons and emperors.

 
Read about great lives
From scientists to superstars, we have a biography to interest you. Here are a few examples.

• Underneath the Southern Cross by Michael Hussey
• Alexander the Great: the truth behind the myth
• Girl code: gaming, going viral, and getting it done
• Finding Gobi: the true story of one little dog's big journey 
• Genghis Khan: the man who conquered the world
• The magnificent life of Miss May Holman: Australia's first female Labor parliamentarian
• The boy behind the curtain by Tim Winton. 

 
Read Classics – Feel like an intellectual by reading one of those great works that everyone assumes you know all about but actually you have never read. Below are just a few of the classics available.
 

• Matilda
• A Wrinkle in Time
• The Hobbit
• The Lord of the Rings
• Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
• Animal Farm
• 1984
• Brave New World
• A Christmas Carol
• The Three Musketeers
• Dracula
• Frankenstein
• Catcher in the Rye
• Catch 22
• 20,000 leagues under the sea
• Blade runner (Do androids dream of electric sheep)

 
I also strongly recommend that you visit the Information Services Library Page where you will find lots of book reviews as well as many helpful links to online databases, research and referencing and various other interesting things such as “Ask a Librarian”!

 
Ms Michelle Pritchard
Director of Library Services
 

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