Warm Winter Read 2026

Welcome back to Warm Winter Read!

To keep you inspired to read daily this season, check out this list of books by this year’s author-ambassadors Keshe Chow, John Morrissey, Melanie Saward, Kate Solly, Shaun Micallef, Jaclyn Crupi, and Jo Dixon.

Our ambassadors have also recommended some of their favourites for us, across a wide variety of forms and genres, fiction and non-fiction, for you to enjoy.

Register HERE if you haven't yet, or pick up a Reading Journal from the library.

Stay warm and get reading this winter!


Updated May 18, 2026
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Wyndham Library
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Planting for native birds, bees and butterflies : how to create a garden that attracts Australian wildlife
Crupi, Jaclyn
Paper Book
An essential, eye-opening (and beautiful) guide to the simple, sustainable ways we can invite more native birds, bees and butterflies into our gardens and outdoor spaces.
A disappearing act
Dixon, Jo
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The House of Now and Then comes a taut and twisty psychological mystery perfect for readers of Sally Hepworth and Nicola Moriarty. Bestselling author Marnie Elliott has invited her three oldest friends to a secluded holiday house in Tasmania. On...
The uncollected plays of Shaun Micallef
Micallef, Shaun
Paper Book
Shaun Micallef is without doubt Australia's premier comedian, writer, producer, presenter, actor, author, broadcaster, bon vivant, gadfly, troubadour, dancer, impresario, acrobat, lion tamer, poet and elite sportsman. But did you know that he is also an internationally renowned playwright? No?...
The girl with no reflection
Chow, Keshe
Paper Book
Ying Yue believes in love. So when the royal matchmaker selects her to wed the crown prince, Ying hopes that love is exactly what awaits her. No matter that the royal family is notoriously reclusive, rarely leaving their walled palace-and no matter the rumors about the previous royal brides, who...
The Paradise Heights craft store stitch-up
Solly, Kate
Paper Book
Meet Fleck Parker: Mother, Crafter and Amateur Detective. Fleck loves a good puzzle. She spends most of her time feeling invisible, caring for three small children, and that's fine, really. But it does make her brain itch occasionally. When Trixie, fellow school-mum and...
The Milkwood permaculture living handbook : habits for hope in a changing world
Bradley, Kirsten
Paper Book
What if your habits could create a more meaningful life for you and a better world? The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook is your guide to improving your home, health and happiness - and the planet - one simple step at a time. Packed with practical skills...
Black leopard, red wolf
James, Marlon
Paper Book
One of TIME's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time Winner of the L.A. Times Ray Bradbury Prize Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award The New York Times Bestseller Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street...
Future-steading : live like tomorrow matters : practical skills, recipes + rituals for a simpler life
Miles, Jade
Paper Book
A stunningly illustrated practical guide to growing, preserving and sharing the food that grounds us.
The stone sky
Jemisin, N. K.
Paper Book
Humanity will finally be saved or destroyed in the shattering conclusion to the post-apocalyptic and highly acclaimed NYT bestselling trilogy that won the Hugo Award three years in a row. The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or...
The compost coach : make compost, build soil and grow a regenerative garden - wherever you live!
Flood, Kate
Paper Book
Spin food waste and household carbon into garden gold, learn about how and why soil matters, and make climate activism an everyday mission, with compost coach Kate Flood.
Vow of eternal night
Crozier, Lily.
Paper Book
Now a top 10 bestseller! Clara Wagner has always known that monsters are real, and that the worst of them is Prince Raleigh of Rostenburg. For years the prince has treated his people as livestock to sate his thirst for blood. But when he decides it's time to marry, Clara...
Songbird of the Sorrows
Otto, Braidee.
Paper Book
Ask no questions. Obey your orders. Respect your masters. But most of all, love no one. Spy. Thief. Princess. Songbird. Princess Aella was ousted from the Palace of Sorrows and gifted to the secret order of spies known as the Aviary at a young age.
Manhattan dreaming
Heiss, Anita
Paper Book
Lauren is a curator at the National Aboriginal Gallery in Canberra. She's good at her job, passionate about the Arts, and takes work seriously. It's easy for Lauren to focus on work, that is, when she's not focussing on Adam. Lauren is smitten with, or as her friends say, obsessed with Adam - the...
Sixty-seven days
Weldon, Yvonne
Paper Book
'We don't say any words - everything has been said through two sets of eyes, two entangled souls and endless kissing.' Evie has been raised in the heart of Aboriginal Redfern, by a proud trailblazing Wiradjuri family. She remembers so much about the previous world - the Dreamtime...
Tripping over myself : a memoir of a life in comedy
Micallef, Shaun
Paper Book
From Shaun Micallef, beloved host of ABC TV's news satire Mad as Hell, comes Tripping Over Myself - an insightful and funny memoir about comedy and life that takes us through uncharted waters to unexpected places.Ā  Comedy has been Shaun's escape, his...
Prize catch
Carter, Alan
Paper Book
When Roz Chen's wife, Niamh, is killed in a hit-and-run on a lonely Tasmanian road, the grieving widow begins to wonder if Niamh's death was an accident after all. Meanwhile, SAS veteran Sam Willard is hoping for a fresh start with a job at a salmon farm. But as allegations of old war crimes surface...
The Couples Retreat
Mercier, Mercedes.
Paper Book
There's nothing more dangerous than someone who remembers who you used to be. At a secluded beachfront mansion on Kangaroo Island, three wealthy couples gather for a weekend of partying and luxury indulgence. But beneath the glitter and excess, deep rivalries and explosive...
The wolf tree
McCluskey, Laura
Paper Book
A gripping and atmospheric debut crime thriller set on an isolated Scottish island ... where outsiders are not welcome. Shortlisted for General Fiction Book of the Year at the ABIA's 2026 Longlisted for Best Debut Fiction in the Indie Book Awards 2026 'There's...
This all come back now : an anthology of First Nations speculative fiction
Saunders, Mykaela
Paper Book
The first-ever anthology of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speculative fiction - written, curated, edited and designed by blackfellas, for blackfellas and about blackfellas. In these stories, 'this all come back'- all those things that have been taken from us, that we collectively mourn the...
The stranger at the table
Hamer, Cassie
Paper Book
A family gathering, but not everyone who sits down to dinner will survive it. Poisonous lies, family secrets, addiction and revenge - always a dish best served cold - are all on the menu. For readers of Sally Hepworth, Jo Dixon and Ali Lowe, this twisty domestic suspense holds you captive from...
An academic affair
McAlister, Jodi
Paper Book
The Love Hypothesis meets The Hating Game in a new standalone rom-com from New York Times acclaimed author and romance academic Jodi McAlister. Ā  Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher have known each other for fifteen years - and they've...
The tea ladies
Hampson, Amanda
Paper Book
A wickedly witty cosy crime novel set in Sydney in the swinging sixties, ideal for fans of Richard Osman and Bonnie Garmus.She keeps everyone's secrets, until there's a murder...Sydney, 1965: After a chance encounter with a stranger, mild-mannered tea lady Hazel Bates becomes an accidental sleuth,...
A disappearance in Fiji
Rao, Nilima
Paper Book
A charming debut historical mystery set in 1914 Fiji.
Love unleashed
Saward, Melanie
Paper Book
When Bigambul woman Brynn Wallace leaves Brisbane to pursue her dreams in the Big Apple, she imagines herself landing a fabulous career at a New York City publishing house and acquiring shelves of Louboutin shoes, not working in a doggy daycare with a boss from hell and a wardrobe from her...
Slivers, shards and skerricks
Micallef, Shaun
Paper Book
This indefinitive collection brings together under one cover the very best comic writing - parody, poetry, prose, plays, philosophy and political treatise - by Australia's greatest living television host. From 'I Was Scott Morrison's Schnoodle' and 'Around the World in One Pair of Underpants' to the...
Love is a war song
Nava, Danica
Paper Book
AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER āˆ™ THREADS SUMMER BOOK CLUB PICK āˆ™ AN AMAZON EDITOR'S PICK FOR ROMANCE āˆ™ AN ELLE BEST ROMANCE OF THE YEAR! A Muscogee pop star and a cowboy who couldn't be more different come together to strike a deal in this new...
Tuesday evenings with the Copeton craft resistance
Solly, Kate
Paper Book
Why we garden: on the joy and wonder of growing things, even when we don't have to
Moloney, Hannah.
Paper Book
In a world of well-stocked supermarkets and florists, why do we garden, even though we don't have to? This was the question that fascinated Hannah Moloney. So she went out and asked. She spoke to politicians, artists, community leaders, activists and thousands of ordinary...
Smithereens : small pieces of Shaun Micallef
Micallef, Shaun.
Paper Book
Swordcrossed
Marske, Freya
Paper Book
'If you're doing romantasy without Freya Marske, you're doing it wrong' - Casey McQuiston, author of Red, White & Royal Blue A dazzling queer fantasy from the bestselling author of A Marvellous Light, brimming with steamy romance, rougeish charm and...
A forbidden alchemy
McEwan, Stacey
Paper Book
Australian BookTok star Stacey McEwan's stunning slow-burn romantasy series traces a fated pair who stumble upon a world-changing secret and are catapulted into a violent class war, finding each other amidst love, loss, and devasting betrayals. Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson...
The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway bust-up
Solly, Kate
Paper Book
A cosy crime/mystery novelĀ from the beloved author of Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft ResistanceĀ and The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up. Something is amiss at the Paradise Heights Miniature Railway. And this...
Bird Deity
Morrissey, John.
Paper Book
David is a scout. For ten years he has plundered the ruins of an alien civilisation about which he knows nothing. Now he's ready to go home, a wealthy man. Except that everything seems to be slipping out of his control. His mentor Tom has vanished. Eliza and her baby are alone. As David...
Miss Caroline Bingley, private detective
Gardiner, Kelly
Paper Book
A missing maid. A murder most foul. A highly imprudent adventure. Only her fine eyes can uncover the truth. ''Pure indulgence! Full of ardent amours, dastardly deeds and rakish rogues'' KATE FORSYTH ''Miss Bingley dismounts her high horse and reinvents herself as a brilliant...
The house of now and then
Dixon, Jo
Paper Book
You should leave the past in the past ... or should you? A vividly told, jaw-droppingly twisty and wholly engaging story about the consequences of discovering the truth. For readers of Sally Hepworth, Nicola Moriarty and Adele Parks. SHORTLISTED FOR THE NED KELLY AWARD FOR...
The obelisk gate
Jemisin, N. K.
Paper Book
Essun's missing daughter grows more powerful every day, and her choices may destroy the world in this "magnificent" Hugo Award winner and NYT Notable Book. (NPR) The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night. Essun -- once...
For no mortal creature
Chow, Keshe
Paper Book
What is dead can die again. When Jia Yi suddenly finds herself alive again after being stabbed through the heart by an enemy's sword, she realizes she possesses a rare power- the ability to move between the living realm and the mysterious, shrouded world of ghosts. Including the...
Haunted pasts
Dixon, Jo
Paper Book
Should you leave the past in the past? Two chilling and atmospheric mysteries from beloved Australian authors. The House of Now and Then - Jo Dixon After a humiliating public scandal, Olivia is hiding from the press in a remote Tasmanian house when an unknown man...
Firelight
Morrissey, John
Paper Book
An imprisoned man with strange visions writes letters to his sister. A controversial business tycoon leaves his daughter a mysterious inheritance. A child is haunted by a green man with a message about the origins of their planet. In this striking collection of...
Pasta love : how to make, eat and celebrate pasta like an Italian
Crupi, Jaclyn
Paper Book
Pasta Love is a love letter to pasta and the people who make it. According to Jaclyn Crupi - a proud Italian-Australian pasta maker and devotee - pasta is love, pasta is life. Pasta can be a quick and simple meal or a culinary masterpiece, but in essence it is about...
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies
Goodman, Alison
Paper Book
A Washington Post Best Mystery Novel of 2023 A high society amateur detective at the heart of Regency London uses her wits and invisibility as an 'old maid' to protect other women in a new and fiercely feminist historical mystery series from New York Times bestselling...
Garden like a nonno : the Italian art of growing your own food
Crupi, Jaclyn
Paper Book
Jaclyn Crupi is back with more Italian wisdom! In Garden Like a Nonno, Jaclyn uncovers the secrets of the green-thumbed nonnos from their no-nonsense approach to life to their zero waste gardening. Whether you have a tiny balcony or a sprawling backyard, you'll be growing your...
A shadow at the door
Dixon, Jo
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The House of Now and Then comes a vividly portrayed story that reveals the darkness of greed and desire where people will stop at nothing to get what they want. No matter the cost ... After a brutal attack and the breakdown of her marriage, life...
Annihilation
VanderMeer, Jeff
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM ALEX GARLAND, STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND OSCAR ISAAC NOW AVAILBLE IN A SPECIAL NEW TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION The Southern Reach Trilogy begins with Annihilation,...
The fifth season
Jemisin, N. K.
Paper Book
At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times) This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time. ...
DeAth Takes a Holiday
Micallef, Shaun.
Paper Book
'If I wasn't dead, I would sue.'--Bram Stoker This is the origin story of the first real vampyre (not Dracula). The trouble with immortality is that eventually you get sick to death of it, and so to soothe his sickened soul, the Comte De'Ath decides to take a...

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