Tara Calaby's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Adding to the already moving, richly told and gripping collection of historical fiction from Emma Donoghue, Learned By Heart is the breathtaking story of two young girls on the margins of life, forging a connection that will last forever.

'Emma Donoghue is a genius of compassion. In our fractured world she brings a great sense of repair to us all.' - Colum McCann, internationally bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin

Eliza and Lister have never been this wide-awake in their lives, and the Slope, with its curtains drawn wide, is bright with starlight. The question Eliza's been needing… show more.

'An enchanting story about love, loss and the power of language' Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory

Sometimes you have to start with what's lost to truly find yourself...

Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood at her father's feet as he and his team gather words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary.

One day, she sees a slip of paper containing a forgotten word flutter to the floor unclaimed.

And so Esme begins to collect words for another dictionary in secret: The Dictionary of Lost Words. But to do so she must journey into a world… show more.

Georgina Banks searches for the truth of what happened to her Great Aunt ‘ Bud’ , killed in the Second World War. Bangka Strait, Indonesia, 1942. Allied ships are evacuating thousands in flight from Singapore, the island having fallen to Japanese Imperial forces. Facing terrifying assaults by fighter planes, one ship, the Vyner Brooke, is badly bombed and sinks. Its survivors swim or paddle for hours to the nearest land, a beach on Bangka Island, parched, many dreadfully injured. One of the survivors is Australian Army nurse Dorothy ‘ Bud’ Elmes, the great-aunt of Georgina Banks. Bud makes it to… show more.