Booktopia Buzz: Dear {NAME}, my top picks for March. Regards, Ilse.

Read reviews for The Animators, Down the Hume, and In the Name of the Family. To view this email as a web page, go [here.]( [Visit our online store]( [Click here to browse Booktopia's collection]( Dear {NAME}, This month we are very pleased to see the publication of a heartfelt memoir by our dear friend and former editor of the Buzz, Caroline Baum. [Only]( is at turns sophisticated, poignant, raw and uplifting - in the [words of John Purcell]( Booktopia’s Head of Marketing and Chief Buyer, it is “utterly brilliant.” And for a limited time only, if you pre-order Only you’ll receive a signed copy. There are some brilliant debuts coming in March, from both local and international authors. Kayla Rae Whitaker’s [The Animators]( is an assured debut, and Peter Polite’s [Down the Hume]( stays with you long after the last page. You can read reviews for both below. Read on for some excellent historical non-fiction picks, a biography of Ned Kelly’s mother, and much, much more. Happy reading! Kind Regards, Ilse Scheepers Booktopia [Click here to view our Birthday Clearance Sale! ]( [Book of the month] [Only - Pre-order Your Signed Copy! by Caroline Baum]( [Only - Pre-order Your Signed Copy!* : A singular memoir - Caroline Baum]( Only is a painfully honest and entertaining story of an unconventional childhood. It reveals what it feels like to be an only child and the focal point of two people damaged by trauma and tragedy. Caroline Baum's poignant and gripping memoir is for anyone who has felt the pressure of being at the fulcrum of a seesaw, the focus of all eyes and expectations - torn between love and fear, obedience and rebellion, duty and the longing to escape... [REVIEW: John Purcell reviews Only, the memoir loved by Elizabeth Gilbert and Magda Szubanski.]( RRP: $32.99 $25.95 Save 21% [More]( [Buy now]( [Click here for more details or to order]( [DAZZLING DEBUTS] [The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker]( by Ilse Scheepers Sharon and Mel meet in art school. They are both fleeing their white trash origins, they both love cartoons, they both aspire to tell their stories - gut-wrenching, searing stories - in their own voices. They form an intense bond, and after ten years, they become an award-winning animation duo. Whitaker has written two women who burn across the page - Mel brightly like a magnesium flare, Sharon slowly like the white hot embers of a bonfire. Her exploration of their creative partnership is pitch perfect, and the best I've read. However, it's not without its tension. Sharon resents babysitting the unbridled Mel, and Mel wants to shake Sharon out of her emotional deep-freeze. This conflict drives the duo to produce art that is so raw, so dark and full of terrible, deep knowledge, that I am glad I had the page between me and it to filter out some of the intensity. To mention plot points would be to spoil the story, but suffice to say I burst out in ugly, wrenching sobs twice while reading this debut. Whitaker has perfectly captured that particular kind of female friendship that rewards and challenges, nourishes and frustrates. It leaves all those hackneyed, fictional cliched tropes in lesser fiction, where women are only competitors or frenemies, gibbering in the dust. And a good thing, too. RRP: $32.99 $25.50 Save 23% [More]( [Buy now]( [Down The Hume by Peter Polites]( by Ilse Scheepers We follow Bux, a young gay man of Greek descent, who is in a tempestuous relationship with a man he calls Nice Arms Pete. Bux is tightly wound and deeply bruised, with the sense that he doesn't belong in any of the many worlds he moves through - the Greek community, the gay community, or the nursing home where he works. This makes love hard. And loving Nice Arms Pete makes it harder. Bux smothers this pressure with a combination of stolen prescription medication and increasingly paranoid attempts to find out where Nice Arms Pete goes when he isn't at home. Who is in that shiny car that drops Pete off at home? Why is he so secretive? Bux is full of yearning, and full of thwarted potential, all mixed together in a taut combination of anger and shame. Polites has written a staccato rat-a-tat novel that throws you into the seared concrete and oppressive heat of Western Sydney, and won't let you go. Down the Hume is a worthy successor to Christos Tsiolkas' Loaded, and a compelling portrait of a part of Sydney that is often disregarded by the well off and well to do, who cluster around the city's glittering harbour. RRP: $27.99 $22.40 Save 20% [More]( [Buy now]( [Click here to view]( [GRIPPING FICTION] [In The Name Of The Family by Sarah Dunant]( by Ilse Scheepers Dunant has once again returned to historical fiction to tell the tale of one of the most infamous families in history. The Borgias, so powerful in their day, have long been remembered as a family steeped in vice, lust and blood. Dunant brings us a more intimate tale about the notorious family, although a no less bloody one. Cesare, Lucrezia and their father Pope Alexander IV are consolidating their power across Italy. Watching their reign of infamy from afar is a young Florentine by the name of Machiavelli. It is this inclusion that makes Dunant's tale really take off - the sumptuousness of her prose surrounding Lucrezia is artfully offset by the cool thoughtfulness of Machiavelli. This is a thrilling novel of family, power and corruption from the acclaimed and bestselling novelist of Italian Renaissance fiction, Sarah Dunant. A highly recommended read. RRP: $29.99 $23.95 Save 20% [More]( [Buy now]( [The Crying Place by Lia Hills]( [The Crying Place - Lia Hills]( A stunning literary debut that takes the reader into the mysteries and truths that lie at the heart of our country. After years of travelling, Saul is trying to settle down. But one night he receives the devastating news of the death of his oldest friend, Jed, recently returned from working in a remote Aboriginal... RRP: $29.99 $23.95 Save 20% [More]( [Buy now]( [A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline]( [A Piece of the World - Christina Baker Kline]( For decades, Christina Olson's whole world has been a rocky, windswept point on the coast of Maine, the farmhouse her ancestors fled to from the Salem witch trials. A world she fears she will never leave. As a girl, farm life asked more of Christina than it did her family, her wasting limbs turning... RRP: $29.99 $23.95 Save 20% [More]( [Buy now]( [More in Fiction]( [Visit The Booktopian for the latest news and reviews]( [Management] [Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly's Mother by Grantlee Kieza]( [Mrs Kelly : The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly's Mother - Grantlee Kieza]( Mrs Kelly is the astonishing story of one of Australia's most notorious women and her wild family, but it's also the story of the making of Australia, from struggling colony and backwater to modern nation. While we know much about the iconic outlaw Ned Kelly, his mother Ellen Kelly has been largely overlooked by Australian writers and historians - until now, with this vivid and compelling portrait by Grantlee Kieza, one of Australia's most popular biographers. When Ned Kelly's mother, Ellen, arrived in Melbourne in 1841... RRP: $39.99 $30.75 Save 23% [More]( [Peak: Reinventing Middle Age by Patricia Edgar, Don Edgar]( [Peak : Reinventing Middle Age - Patricia Edgar]( Society is changing faster than policies and attitudes are keeping up with. People are living longer, retiring from work later, and remaining active and valuable contributors to the community well into and beyond their 50s and 60s. Peak: Reinventing Middle Age focuses on Australians in the 50-75 age bracket: their contributions to society and their needs and expectations for their own lives. It is an insightful look at employment, relationships, education, housing, finances, lifestyles, health and aged care, and the need for reinvention both on... RRP: $32.99 $25.50 Save 23% [More]( [Buy now]( [More in Non-Fiction]( [Tune in to Booktopia's podcasts]( [LOOKING FORWARD HOT PRE-ORDERS] [The Dog's Last Walk : (and Other Pieces) - Howard Jacobson]( [After - Nikki Gemmell]( [See What I Have Done - Sarah Schmidt]( [Carnivalesque - Neil Jordan]( [More Hot Pre-Orders]( [Click here for more details or to order]( [DONT MISS THESE BUZZ PICKS] [The Birdman's Wife - Melissa Ashley]( [Days Without End : Costa Book of the Year 2016 - Sebastian Barry]( [Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur]( [Dark Emu : Black Seeds : Agriculture or Accident? - Bruce Pascoe]( [CELEBRATE THE STELLA PRIZE LONGLIST] [Between a Wolf and a Dog : Winner, Prize for Fiction - Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2017 - Georgia Blain]( [Victoria: The Queen : Longlisted for the 2017 Stella Award - Julia Baird]( [The Hate Race : Longlisted for the 2017 Stella Award - Maxine Beneba Clarke]( [An Isolated Incident : Longlisted for the 2017 Stella Award - Emily Maguire]( [Browse the Stella Prize Longlist]( [Click here to view our Love Through the Pages titles]( [Click here to view Booktopia's 2017 Calendar Range]( Please Note: Prices displayed in this newsletter are correct at time of publication. Website prices are subject to change at short notice. In these circumstances, the price listed in the newsletter may not be correct. In the event that a price conflict between the newsletter and website does occur, website prices will override prices listed in the newsletter. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Blog]( [Google+]( [Instagram]( [Youtube]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} The sender is Booktopia, Unit E1, 3-29 Birnie Avenue, Lidcombe NSW 2141 [SEND TO A FRIEND]( | [SIGN UP]( | [CONTACT US]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Prices displayed are correct at the time of sending. Website prices are subject to change at short notice. In these circumstances, the prices listed may not be correct. In the event that a price conflict between this email and the website does occur, website prices will override prices in this email.