QBD BOOKS READING ROOM

Wrap your hands around QBD’s Books of the Year! Hand selected by our crack team of literary experts, these books are our top reads for 2022

My Dream Time by Ash Barty | $35.00

Ash Barty’s story is about the power and joy of doing that thing you love and seeing where it can take you, about the importance of purpose – and perspective – in our lives.

“My Dream Time is about finding the path to being the best I could be, not just as an athlete but as a person, and to consider the way those identities overlap and compete. We all have a professional and a personal self. How do you conquer nerves and anxiety? How do you deal with defeat, or pain? What drives you to succeed – and what happens when you do? The answers tell me so much, about bitter disappointments and also dreams realised – from injuries and obscurity and self-doubt to winning Wimbledon and ranking number 1 in the world.”

It’s a tennis story. It’s a family story. It’s a teamwork story. It’s the story of how Barty got to where and who she is today.

A Girl Called Corpse by Reece Carter | $12.99

With a body made of wax, seaweed for hair and polished abalone shells for eyes, Corpse is bound to haunt the Witches’ sea shack forever. She has no memory of the kid she was before she was snatched and ended up on the rock-that-doesn’t-exist.

But the delivery of an unexpected message sets Corpse off on a surprising quest, searching for answers to the old and familiar questions that have filled her notbrain since the day she first woke up a ghost. Questions about her name. Questions about her family.

With only her eight-legged friend Simon for company, Corpse heads into the unknown. There will be danger – cruel Witches, a silver-eyed sea monster and a cunning Merchant with a hungry grin – but Corpse is not afraid. She’ll stop at nothing to uncover the truth about her past.

Only some answers, it turns out, are much closer than she thinks.

Lying Beside You by Michael Robotham | $16.99

Twenty years ago, Cyrus Haven’s family was murdered. Only he and his brother survived.

Cyrus because he hid. Elias because he was the killer.

Now Elias is being released from a secure psychiatric hospital and Cyrus, a forensic psychologist, must decide if he can forgive the man who destroyed his childhood.

As he prepares for the homecoming, Cyrus is called to a crime scene in Nottingham. A man is dead and his daughter, Maya, is missing.

Then a second woman is abducted … The only witness is Evie Cormac, a troubled teenager with an incredible gift: she can tell when you are lying.

Both missing women have dark secrets that Cyrus must unravel to find them – and he and Evie know better than anybody how the past can come back to haunt you …