If you love to cry...
You'll love Chosen by a Horse by Susan Richards

When Susan Richards agrees to take on one of the abused horses just rescued by the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a new chapter opens in her turbulent life. Caring for this astonishingly trusting creature, she begins a relationship that will change her view of the world.

Susan Richards lost her mother at the age of five and was raised by uncaring relatives; married unhappily and divorced, she had also become an alcoholic. At forty-three, she found herself living with just horses for company: the diva-like Georgia, boyish Tempo and hopeless romantic, Hotshot. While Susan is vainly attempting to capture the rescued horse assigned to her, a skeletal mare called Lay Me Down walks into the horse trailer of her own volition. Susan takes her home, and this broken and badly treated animal proves to her that trust is not just for dreamers.

Beautifully-written, poignant, and often sharply funny, this memoir is an inspiring must-read for anyone who has ever loved a horse, and anyone who has ever lost their way in life.

If you like a ripping yarn...
You'll love Floodtide by Judy Nunn

'The denuded earth of the iron-ore loading yards, the huge jetties thrusting their way out into the clear blue sea, the endless ponds of the solar salt farm, stretching stark and white over hundreds of hectares . . . all appeared a hideous invasion upon nature. But to Mike McAllister, there was something faintly ludicrous about it. Man's interference seemed petty in the face of such unconquerable timelessness. In millions of years, mankind would cease to exist, but this terrain would not. This was the Pilbara.'

Floodtide is a brilliant observation of turbulent times in the mighty 'Iron Ore State' - Western Australia. The novel traces the fortunes of four men and four families over four memorable decades: The prosperous post-war 1950s when childhood is idyllic and carefree in the small, peaceful city of Perth . . . The turbulent 60s when youth is caught up in the conflict of the Vietnam War and free love reigns . . . The avaricious 70s when Western Australia's mineral boom sees the rise of a new young breed of aggressive entrepreneurs . . . The corrupt 80s and the birth of 'WA Inc', when the alliance of greedy politicians and powerful businessmen brings the state to its knees, even threatening the downfall of the federal government.

Each of the four who travel this journey has a story to tell. An environmentalist fights to save the primitive and beautiful Pilbara coast from the careless ravaging of mining conglomerates; a Vietnam War veteran rises above crippling injuries to discover a talent that gains him an international reputation; and an ambitious geologist joins forces with a hard-core businessman to lead the way in the growth of Perth from a sleepy town to a glittering citadel. But, as the 90s ushers in a new age when innocence is lost, all four are caught up in the irreversible tides of change, and actions must be answered for.

Floodtide is a character-driven, merciless rush of blood from the pen of Judy Nunn, one of Australia's master storytellers.

If you like to be inspired...
You'll love Slow Journey South by Paula Constant

When Paula Constant and her husband, Gary, attempt to break away from the conventional 9-to-5 routine, a few weeks lazing in a resort or packed in a tour bus is not what they have in mind. What starts out as an idle daydream to embark on 'a travel to end all travels' turns into something far greater: an epic year-long 5000-kilometre walk from Trafalgar Square in London to Morocco and the threshold of the Sahara Desert.

Quite an ambition for an unfit woman who favours sharing cigarettes and a few bottles of wine with friends over logging time on the treadmill. But if the sheer arduousness of walking over 25 kilometres a day through the landscapes and cultural labyrinths of France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco - without a support vehicle - is overlooked in her excitement, then so too is the unexpected journey of self discovery and awakening that lies beyond every bend. Both the companions she meets on the road and the road itself provide what no university can offer: a chance to experience life's simple truths face to face.

Paula's transformation from an urban primary school teacher into a successful expeditioner is a true tale of an ordinary woman achieving something extraordinary. It is a journey that begins with one footstep.

If you like a little action...
You'll love Nothing to Lose by Lee Child

Two small towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, nothing but twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher can't find a ride, so he walks. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets are four redneck deputies who want to run him out of town.

Mistake. They're picking on the wrong guy. Jack Reacher is a big man, and he's in shape. No job, no address, no baggage. Nothing, except bloody-minded curiosity. What is the secret the locals seem so keen to hide?

A hard man is good to find. Ex-military cop Reacher is today's most addictive hero. Now he pulls on a tiny loose thread, to unravel conspiracies that expose the most shocking truths. Because, after all, Jack Reacher has nothing to lose.

If you like to escape, unwind and relax...
You'll love Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella

Lexi wakes up in a hospital bed after a car accident, thinking it's 2004 and she's a twenty-five-year old with crooked teeth and a disastrous love life. But, to her disbelief, she learns it's actually 2007 - she's twenty-eight, her teeth are straight, she's the boss of her department - and she's married! To a good-looking millionaire! How on earth did she land the dream life??!

She can't believe her luck - especially when she sees her stunning new home. She's sure she'll have a fantastic marriage once she gets to know her husband again. He's drawn up a 'manual of our marriage', which should help.
But as she learns more about her new self, chinks start to appear in the perfect life. All her old colleagues hate her. A rival is after her job. Then a dishevelled, sexy guy turns up. and lands a new bombshell.

What the **** happened to her? Will she ever remember? And what will happen if she does?

If you like to explore other people's lives...
You'll love The Biographer by Virginia Duigan

Greer Gordon lives in Italy with Mischa Svoboda, a driven Czech-born painter with a booming international reputation. She and Mischa met in the 1970s, when his debut show at the small Melbourne art gallery where Greer then worked created a sensation. He was unknown at the time, a recently arrived refugee from Prague. Their explosive love affair caused Greer to abandon her husband, job and autocratic boss Verity, sever all contact with home and embark on a nomadic life with Mischa.

Twenty-five years later, Tony, a young American art critic, has been researching a biography of Mischa and arrives in the small Italian hilltop community where they now live. Greer is consumed by anxiety, fearing 'the biographer' may have unearthed something that happened as a consequence of her meeting Mischa, a buried secret she had intended to write out of her life story. Greer and Tony play out a gripping cat-and-mouse game in which she tries to glean who he has spoken to and what, if anything, he knows, while he lets drop, with calculated casualness, graded snippets of information designed to keep her guessing.

It becomes clear that Tony is manipulating a dramatic outcome for the purposes of his story. It will be an investigative read in which the reader discovers the facts as the biographer-detective unravels them. The biographer intends to make his name with this book.

As her hand is forced, Greer embarks on a tense journey of her own. In revisiting the past from the perspective of the present, through Tony's artful interrogations and her own diary, she is compelled to put her youthful self on trial. In the process she makes a life-changing discovery.

If you like an unorthodox romance...
You'll love A Partisan's Daughter by Loui de Bernieres

Set in North London during the Winter of Discontent, A Partisan's Daughter features the relationship between Chris, an unhappily-married, middle-aged Englishman and Roza, a young Serbian woman who has recently moved to London.
While driving through Archway in the course of his job as a medical rep, Chris is captivated by a young woman on a street corner. Clumsily, he engages her in conversation, and he secures an invitation to return one day for a coffee.
His visits become more frequent and Roza starts to tell him the story of her life, drawing him increasingly into her world - from her childhood as a daughter of one of Tito's partisans, through her journey to England and on to her more recent colourful and dangerous past in London.

A Partisan's Daughter is about the power of storytelling. It is also a beautifully wrought and unlikely love story which is both compelling and moving to read. Here is another wonderful novel from the author of the bestselling Birds Without Wings and Captain Correlli's Mandolin.

If you like strong women...
You'll love Almost Perfect by Kelly Denley

Growing up, Kelly Denley had dreamed of the perfect family, and of being the perfect mum, but as the mother of eight she discovered that almost perfect was actually just perfect enough .

After being a full-time wife and mother since the age of 17, by 31 Kelly Denley has lost sight of who she truly is, so when the pregnancy test comes back positive for number eight, she isn't exactly ecstatic. Then things get a whole lot worse. Postnatal depression takes its toll on Kelly, her father is given just a year to live, her husband is retrenched, one daughter is hospitalised and another on antidepressants and, in a final frightening development, her eldest boy, who suffers from Asperger's, threatens suicide. Distraught, Kelly blames herself and knows that everything has to change.

As the family gradually find their feet, in a bid to prove she's more than just a mother, Kelly takes a giant leap out of her comfort zone and dons a school uniform to finish an education cut short by teen pregnancy. The suburban mum, used to sneers about her large brood like 'Don't you know what causes it?' blitzes the HSC with an amazing 97.3.

But that, it turns out, is just the start of an incredible journey for the Denleys. Concerned about her children's school problems and behaviour, Kelly takes dramatic action, putting her university dream on hold so the family can travel Australia for a year in the hope that the experience will draw them closer together. How Kelly tackles both the joy and pain that lie in wait, from discovering the beauty in nature she'd always been too busy to see and mastering the art of home-schooling in a tent, to nearly drowning in a flooded river and more heartache over her children, makes Almost Perfect an inspiring, moving, yet often hilarious rollercoaster ride of a memoir.