Stoker Munro

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David Spiteri

A simple, moving, vivid and heartbreaking account of one young sailor's eventful war. I heard the cries of scared men yelling they couldn't swim, but they jumped in regardless. I pulled off my new boots, dropped them on the deck and, clutching my tobacco tin, jumped overboard, feet first ... We were a good distance away from the sinking Perth when two more torpedoes slammed into it and we watched silently as our ship slid under. Suddenly we were alone at sea in a pitch-black night in an overcrowded Carley float. Someone said, 'Goodbye, gallant one.' Stoker Munro was just an inexperienced seventeen year old knockabout kid when he went to war, but he turned out to be an extraordinary survivor. The sinking of the Perth was only the beginning of his war. Stoker suffered through years of harsh imprisonment in Java and the infamous Changi prison camp, as well as the horrors of the Thai-Burma Railway. Then, just as conditions improved, he was shipped off to Japan and another disaster. Stoker Munro, Survivor is a simple but moving account of a young sailor's war, as told to his close friend, David Spiteri. Stoker's voice - clear, distinctive, laidback and larrikin, with an ability to find the humour in just about any situation - epitomises everything that is great about the ANZAC spirit: courage, resilience, and the sheer refusal to lie down and be beaten.

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Rosemary Laurey

Refusing to believe in love, vampire and art gallery owner Antonia Stonewright gets more than she bargains for when she becomes involved with reclusive and sexy potter Michael Langton, whose true nature is more than she can handle.

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Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

When Ethan wakes after the chilling events of the Eighteenth Moon, his one goal is to return to Lena and his loved ones, while back in Gatlin, Lena vows to do whatever it takes to bring Ethan home--even trusting old enemies and risking the lives of those Ethan left to protect.

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Lisa Klein

lein retells Hamlet, expanding on the romance between its hero and Ophelia, who narrates this version. Keeping true to the framework of the play, the heroine, now 16, reports the tragic events in the troubled Elsinore castle. When she first speaks to Hamlet, Ophelia is a 10-year-old ragged tomboy tagging along after her brother, Laertes. A year later, Ophelia is accepted into Queen Gertrude's court ("Becoming a lady, I learned, was not easy"), and she grows into a beautiful, rather outspoken young woman with an interest in herbs. Her quick wit attracts the prince's attention, and their Shakespearean-style banter will delight readers. Hamlet and Ophelia secretly become husband and wife, and on their wedding night, the ghost of Hamlet's father appears at the castle; Horatio, at the stroke of midnight, barges into the newlyweds' bedroom calling, "To the ramparts, Hamlet. It comes!" Readers familiar with the play will know that Hamlet's feigned madness to seek revenge eventually proves to be his undoing. As things rage out of control, Ophelia fears for her own safety ("My life ... is worth no more than a beast's"). Klein smoothly weaves in lines from the play and keeps her characterizations true to the playwright's, even as she rounds out the back story.