Top five books by Adelaide authors for when you are in isolation
Are you self-isolating because of coronavirus, or perhaps engaged in some determined ‘social distancing’? Here’s our list of good reads by Adelaide authors that will help pass the time.
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At some point in time you might be asked to self-isolate at home to help contain coronavirus. So, to ensure you won’t go stir-crazy, here are five books by Adelaide authors to help you pass the time.
1. Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent
Based on a true story, Burial Rites is a novel about personal freedom: who we are seen to be versus who we believe ourselves to be, and the ways we will risk everything for love. The book, by Adelaide Hills author Hannah Kent, has won a string of awards since its publication in 2013. It is set in northern Iceland in 1829, where Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of two men. She is sent to wait out the time leading to her execution, on a farm owned by District Officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. Only Tóti, the young assistant priest appointed as Agnes’s spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her, as he attempts to save her soul.
More information at hannahkentauthor.com
2. Adelaide Central Market: Stories, People and Recipes, by Fiona Roberts and Katie Spain
Adelaide Central Market has been feeding our city, body and soul for 150 years. This book of stories, recipes and images tells its tale, from humble beginnings to a world-renowned cultural and culinary cornucopia. The pages capture the memories of traders of yesteryear and the familiar faces who make the Adelaide Central Market such a lively place today. Fiona Roberts lives in the Adelaide Hills, where she runs Fiona Roberts Food, specialising in recipe development, food styling and marketing. Katie Spain is The Advertiser and Sunday Mail’s specialist wine writer.
More information at adelaidecentralmarket.com.au
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3. The Anxiety Book, by Elisa Black
Feeling anxious about coronavirus? This is the perfect book, explaining how people can manage and treat any anxiety. Weaving memoir with science, author Elisa Black uses stages of her own life to relate to stages in everyone’s lives and the types of anxiety that might be experienced during each phase. She includes the latest in research and other scientific information about anxiety, its causes and treatment. From her own experience, she also offers hope that anxiety does not have to dominate a life, or even dent it – it can be managed and conquered. Elisa Black is a former journalist for The Advertiser.
More information at hachette.com.au
4. Bound for Glory, by Amy Matthews
Flinders University senior lecturer Amy Matthews writes laugh-out-loud adventure stories, with strong and sassy heroines and heroes to make your knees go weak. Bound for Glory is the Walkerville writer’s fourth book in the series Frontiers of the Heart. It tells of an ice-eyed killer of the plains and the restless spirit that haunts the frontier from California to Missouri, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. They call him Deathrider, White Wolf and The Plague of the West. At least, so they say. Ava Archer wouldn’t know – she’s never seen him. But that doesn’t stop her from writing about him. If only rumours of his death would stop getting in the way of a good story.
More information at amytmatthews.com
5. Maggie’s Going Nowhere, by Rose Hartley
Gilberton resident Rose Hartley released her debut novel, Maggie’s Going Nowhere, earlier this year. The plot follows Maggie Cotton, whose life is described as a ‘hot mess’. In one day, she is dumped by her boyfriend, disinherited by her mum, and kicked off the three-year uni course she’d stretched to a decade. And that was all before she received a letter saying she owed the government $70,000. Maggie spends the last of her money (reluctantly donated by her mother) on a decrepit 1960s caravan, all in attempt to prove she isn’t a walking disaster.
More information at rosehartley.com
Know of a great book by an Adelaide author? Comment below with your suggestions.