Petersen's Bookstore - Hastings Victoria

The US election....get yourself up to date....
Nick Bryant's The Forever War.

The Forever War tells the story of how America’s political polarisation is 250 years in the making, and argues that the roots of its modern-day malaise are to be found in its troubled past.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the American experiment is failing. Division, mistrust and misinformation are now its defining characteristics. The storming of the Capitol, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the increasing spotlight on Second Amendment rights raise the spectre of further political violence, and even the possibility of a second civil war.

Nick Bryant argues that the hate, divisiveness and paranoia we see today are in fact a core part of America’s story. Combining brilliant storytelling with historical research, Bryant argues that insurrections, assassinations and massacres – from the American Civil War through to JFK and the inner-city race riots of the late ’60s, up to the more recent school shootings and the murder of George Floyd – should sadly not be seen as abnormalities.

The compromises originally designed to hold the union together – the Amendments made in the Reconstruction era to give rights back to former enslaved people, the apportionment of political power – have never truly been resolved. Today, a country that looked confidently to the future has become captive to its contentious past.

Molly
by Rosalie Ham

Coming in October...the perfect Christmas gift!

It's 1914 and Molly Dunnage wants to see change: at home, at work and in underwear.

Her burgeoning corsetry business is starting to take off, thanks to some high-profile supporters. She's marching with Melbourne's suffragists for better conditions for women everywhere. And her family - her eccentric, confounding, adored father and aunt - are turning their minds to country retirement.

But as the clouds of war gather and an ominous figure starts skulking in the shadows of her life, Molly's dreams start to falter. Then, when true love drops out of the sky and into her arms, her hopes for her life and the world are entirely upended . . .

With the dark humour, richly detailed settings and vividly drawn characters we've come to expect from Rosalie Ham, this prequel to the international bestseller The Dressmaker is an unforgettable story of hopes lost, love found - and corsets loosened.

But of course!

Throwback Thursday

Servo
Tales from the Graveyard Shift
by David Goodwin

An odyssey of drive-offs, spiked slurpees, stale sausage rolls and sleep-deprived madness.

Most of us have done our time in the retail trenches, but service stations are undoubtedly the frontline, as Melburnian David Goodwin found out when he started working the weekend graveyard shift at his local servo.

From his very first night shift, David absorbed a consistent level of mind-bending lunacy, encountering everything from giant shoplifting bees and balaclava-clad goons hurling cordial-filled water bombs from the sunroof of their BMW, to anarcho-goths high on M**A releasing large rats into the store from their matching Harry Potter backpacks.

Over the years, David grew to love his mad servo, handing out free pies and chocolate bars on the sly as he grew a backbone and became street smart. Amidst the unrelenting chaos, he eventually made it out of the servo circus - and lived to tell the tale.

For anyone who's ever toiled under the unforgiving fluorescent lights of a customer service job, SERVO is a side-splitting and darkly mesmeric coming-of-age story from behind the anti-jump wire that will have you gritting your teeth, then cackling at the absurdity, idiocy and utterly beguiling strangeness of those who only come out at night.

Fabulous new series form Philip Reeve of Mortal engines fame.
Series of 3...all available now!

Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep

It was always at sundown they were seen. In that twilight hour, when the walls between the worlds grew thin, strange things might slip through the cracks. Sometimes then, so the stories went, enchanted islands would appear in the empty ocean to the west of Wildsea.
When Utterly Dark was a baby, she was washed up on the shores of the Autumn Isles and taken in by the Watcher of Wildsea. But everything changes when her guardian suddenly drowns. Now who will keep the Watch, and make sure Wildsea stays safe from the strange forces teeming in the deep ocean around them?

New David Walliams
Super Sleuth
coming in September

Looks like bags of fun!

Wurrtoo

by Tylissa Elisara and illustrated by Dylan Finney

It all began in a burrow. The fifty-fifth burrow of Bushland Avenue to be exact. If you were ever lucky enough to find this beautiful clearing on Kangaroo Island where the arching gum trees kiss, you'd know that Wurrtoo's home is the one at the end with the big red trapdoor and large gold doorknob. Can you see it?

Wurrtoo the wombat lives a quiet and solitary life in his burrow on Kangaroo Island, hoping to one day travel to the mainland and marry the love of his life, the sky. When Wurrtoo inadvertently saves Kuula the koala from a bushfire, he acquires the adventure companion he didn't know he needed.

With Kuula by his side, Wurrtoo leaves the safety of his burrow and sets out on an epic journey to cross the island, reach the mainland and climb to the top of tallest tree in the Forest of Dreaming. But it's fire season, and danger and strange creatures lurk behind every gum tree. To make it, the pair must face their fears together, learn the importance of friendship and discover the power of wombat wishes

We are thrilled to announce that the Somers Arts Fair will be returning on November 17, 2024!

This year, the fair will look a little different, and we can't wait to share all the exciting details with you. Stay tuned for more updates!

The End and Everything Before It
by Finegan Kruckemeyer

Let's face it...this is reading weather!

Emma watched her mother’s kayak disappear among icebergs in the Arctic Sea. Six years later, her brother, who had not spoken since their mother was lost, warns Emma of the curse of death that she brought to anyone who looked on her face—before tragedy befalls him too.

Emma consigns herself to a solitary life at sea, where she can do no more harm. After years alone, she is mysteriously drawn to land. And she docks at an island, afraid of what her arrival might mean for the welcoming man and his daughter waving from the jetty.

But who knows where our stories begin and end or how they are entwined? Who knows whether now, on the island, she begins a new tale—or takes a role in a story that began generations ago with a feast in the forest, or a chest of gold coins plunged into the sea, or an orphan in a bookshop beguiled by an elusive and troubled woman?

Ditto.

Credit: Lajla Wegger Tosterud

When you are having one of those days....

Reminder 💙 ~ Nanea

Get excited, people!
New cookbook from Nagi...due in October.
Reserve a copy now...you know they will go sooo fast!

And just like that, it's the weekend. Enjoy. Not too much crossfit!!

A fun night out, AND supporting your local preschool.

🎶 SAVE THE DATE! 🎶

Our fundraising committee have been working behind the scenes to plan a Music Bingo night for our past, present and future 2025 families!
Enjoy a night of great music with a few rounds of music bingo, hosted by TimeWarp Events. 🎤🎵
Get together with your friends or family to help us raise funds for our incredible kinder!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17TH AT 7:00PM

$20pp OR $180 for a Table of 10. Tickets will be available to purchase in term 3. 🎟️
We've received some incredible donations by our generous sponsors for a silent auction and prizes on the night. We'll share more details in a separate post! 🌟

How wonderful. Lovely to see these classic books going the distance...and as popular as ever!

Can you believe Are We There Yet? is 20 years old?! Where has the time gone? So many people tell us it's their favourite book of all time... if you agree, you can vote for it in the Better Reading Top 50 Kid's Books. If you enter you can also win a copy of every book in the top 50 list!
Link in bio.

Oh ho!

If you are looking for holiday ideas...here's a great road trip with a fabulous place to stop..

Alison's Fish Creek Gallery and bookshop is open everyday during the Victorian School Holidays, 10am-3pm. Come down and visit this special part of the world.... check out Magic Beach, visit Waratah Bay where Noni the Pony lives, and there's so much more to do!
Don't forget you can shop online 24/7 at alisonlester.com
Link in bio.

If you haven't read the book yet then please do...you will love it!

A paw-bump for you if you’ve seen the official RUNT film trailer!

If you’re yet to have the pleasure, have a squizz at my last post, or follow this link: t.ly/P4LTv

RUNT is in cinemas SEPTEMBER 19!

And more fabulous fiction...

The Desert Knows Her Name by Lia Hills

Listen deeply now, if you remember how and why.

On a hot October afternoon, a girl walks barefoot out of the Wimmera desert, near the small town of Gatyekarr.
She finds sanctuary with Beth, a regenerative farmer and collector of seeds, devoted to bringing her family's farm back to life. The arrival of the mysterious 'desert girl' unsettles the community and old tensions erupt. The longer the girl stays silent, the more volatile the town becomes. Who is she and what does her presence mean?

The Desert Knows Her Name is an exquisite novel that speaks to a deep longing for connection with the land, and the silences that persist in contemporary Australia.

Fantastic new fiction...
Heartsease by Kate Kruimink

I saw my mother for a long time after she died. I would see her out windows, or in the corner of my eye. Always in the periphery, always a dim blur, but unmistakably my mother, the herness skating through every line and flicker.

Charlotte ('Lot') and Ellen ('Nelly') are sisters who were once so close a Venn diagram of the two would have formed a circle. But a great deal has changed since their mother's death, years before. Clever, beautiful, gentle Lot has been unfailingly dutiful - basically a disaster of an older sister for much younger Nelly, still haunted by their mother in her early thirties.

When the pair meet at a silent retreat in a strange old house in the Tasmanian countryside, the spectres of memory are unleashed.

Heartsease is a sad, sly and darkly comic story about the weight of grief and the ways in which family cleave to us, for better and for worse. It's an account of love and ghosts so sharp it will leave you with paper cuts.

Yes!!

Chef's Kitchens

Beautiful coffee table book.

A behind-the-scenes look into the home kitchens (and gardens) of 22 of Australia's celebrity chefs. Notable mentions include Frank Camorra (MoVida), Brigitte Hafner (Graceburn House & Tedesca Osteria in Red Hill, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula), Tony Niccolini (Italian Artisans), Scott Pickett (Estelle, Matilda and Audrey's in Sorrento), and of course many others.

Don't forget our yearly Cookbook swap is on....bring in a cookbook you no longer want/need and swap it for another on our swap table. No money changes hands, just cookbooks!!!